Be the light

“You are the light of the world- like a city on a mountain, glowing in the night for all to see.  Don’t hide your light under a basket! Instead , put it on a stand and let it shine for all.”  (Matthew 5:14-15)

The other day I was talking to a friend about how difficult it must have been for the prophets to know the suffering the people of Israel would have to endure if they didn’t turn to God.  But as I was talking I realized that like the prophets, we have been given a revelation;  God has chosen to open our eyes and let us see,by His mercy he has lifted the veil  so we can have a glimpse of what will happen at the end of time.  “God overlooked people’s former ignorance about these things, but now he commands everyone everywhere to turn away from idols and turn to him.  For he has set a day for judging the world with justice by the man he has appointed, and he proved to everyone who this is by raising him from the dead.” (Acts 17:30-31) What are we doing with this revelation?  Are we acting with the urgency required? And I don’t mean that we should start spreading panic;  on the contrary, we should be sharing peace, hope and life, in other words… the Truth of Jesus.

So before we go and hit everyone over the head with our Bibles, judging them and frightening them with ultimatums, let’s pause and ask God what is it that He wants us to do… what would Jesus do? How would He treat them? How would He share His Father’s love?

There are people around us hungry for peace, searching for meaning and hope, and even tough we don’t have all the answers, we know who does and we can point them His way.  “Anyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.  But how can they call on him to save them unless they believe in him?  And how can they believe in him if they have never heard about him? And how can they hear about him unless someone tells them?” (Romans 10:13-14)  Everyone around you is there for a reason, you may not know what they need or what they are going through, but God does.  We are meant to be light in the darkness, a breath of fresh air in a highly polluted world.  

You may have read Isaiah 6:8 “Then I heard the Lord asking, ‘whom should I send as a messenger to my people? Who will go for us?’  And I said, ‘Lord, I’ll go! Send me.”  We read this verse and get all excited and we repeat… “Yes, Lord send me too!  I will go” and that is great! But when He gives us our assignment our excitement may dwindle some and we think … “really?  Is this what you want me to do?  This is too hard!” God knows it is hard for us, but not for Him, and He wants us to walk by faith relying only on Him, reaching our hand out to His children, the ones that are suffering and need His comfort and love.   

We reflect God’s light when we love; I am not talking about some half way, kind of nice attitude… No!  When we really love!  When we make it so outrageous that people find no way to deny that it was God.   The song by Newsboys “God’s not dead” says this in a great way “Let love explode and bring the dead to life, a love so bold to bring a revolution somehow” That is the type of love we need to share.  Make it big because that is how God loves.  He loves in unbelievable ways that make us say with a smile… “Yeah, God, I know that was you!”

It all sounds so nice, but how exactly can we love like that?  Well, the Bible is full of stories that inspire us and messages from God that clearly tell us how, not only that but as we spend time with God He guides us and starts placing people and opportunities in our path.  In 1 John 3:18-19 we read “Dear children, let us stop just saying we love each other; let us really show it by our actions.  It is by our actions that we know we are living in the truth.” Love is active, it needs to be expressed and shown; otherwise it is only an empty overused word.

“Be humble and gentle.  Be patient with each other, making allowance for each other’s faults because of your love.” (Ephesians 4:2)  Look at the words in the verse: humble, gentle, patient… Let’s be honest, those are not easy words to put into practice, but that is what makes it so exciting!  We know that the light that we are called to be is not ours, is a reflection of God’s light and that is why it is possible to love the way He is asking us to love.

“How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”  (Romans 10:15) Let’s allow God to use us as His messengers to bring light to a suffering world; one loving action at the time.