daily spiritual reflection
BIBLE READING FOR THE DAY: You are the Light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and then put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your father in Heaven. (-Jesus)
- Matt 5:13-16
THOUGHT: Light is a great metaphor for God's role in the world, and our connection to his activity today. Imagine the world with no sunshine-- not only would it be depressing and grey, it would literally be lifeless; nothing could even grow. There would be no sense of time because the sun would never rise or set. There would be no vision, because all we'd see is darkness. Warmth, light, our days & time, energy, all these things come from light. In the same way, God is the essence of provision and life in our world.
Jesus calls us the "light of the world." Do you feel that way? If we were honest, our answer might be dependent on our attitude or on what happens throughout the day. What if our answer only depended on our relationship with God and us letting him shine through us. The clue about "and glorify your father in Heaven" lets us know that it's really not our light that everything's about. Instead, if God is the sun, it's like we're his little moons, reflecting his light into the world. If this is true, then we don't have to work really hard to try to make up the light on our own. But for us to shine and for us to shake off the darkness that hurts us, we need a source of light-- we need to interact with God's sunshine.
When anyone turns to face God's light full on, we're going to feel exposed, because truth is always a bit scary. But soon we feel comfortable in that vulnerability-- we've all met those kind of people who we can tell anything to without feeling judged or isolated, right? God never stops shining his loving light on us, and we find that, after we've adjusted to his brightness and all that he sees, it's a light of warmth and good things. And soon he's started getting down to the roots of who we are in our hearts, and loving us there. We start to shine freely, and reflect his light-- it comes right through us! And soon we're the ones bringing life into situations in our world.
CHALLENGE: Sit down. Ask yourself, "If God shone his light on me, what would I do?" Examine how you see God. Is that light harsh? It it loving? No matter what you feel right now choose to see God's light as one that brings hope, love, joy, and peace. If God's light brought those things, where would you want that light to shine in your life?
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