Does Your Life Reflect Light?
"You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill
cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and 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.” – Matthew 5:14-16
We like to think of ourselves as the light of the
world. We pat ourselves on the back when we hold the door for someone,
encourage someone, put an offering in the plate at church. Yes. That’s us. The
light of the world.
But how do we hide our light? Oh, we don’t want to
think about that part. We don’t want to consider how we might dim the light of
Jesus by our words or actions. Except how can we ever change if we don’t look
at ourselves from a realistic place?
Sometimes we hide our light by remaining quiet when we
should speak. Just as we should measure our words carefully, speaking truth
with kindness and compassion, so should we speak even when it might be
uncomfortable. So often we’re so busy getting along that we blend in rather
than stand out.
This doesn’t mean we should fight God’s battles. That’s
a different thing. It simply means that when we see wrong, we should speak up.
That goes right along with the crowd. We don’t want to
be different. We want to fit in. We want others to want to be around us, to
include us. Except we are different. We aren’t meant to fit in. And sometimes
the best way to shine your light is to step away from a crowd that isn’t
following Jesus.
We also hide our light when we deny it. Oh, you would
never do that! Are you sure? How many times have you taken credit for something
that came from God? Yeah. Ego and pride don’t mix well with God. You have to
choose. Do you choose Him?
In the same way, we sometimes let sin extinguish our
light. People are watching all the time, just waiting for the Jesus follower to
mess up. And we don’t disappoint them. We are quick to get angry at the other
driver, we excuse dishonesty on our taxes because “everyone does it,” we laugh
heartedly at the off-color joke. We watch television shows, listen to music and
play games that we know aren’t things that go along with the teachings of
Jesus.
We also dim our light when we don’t tell others about
the wonderful gift of Jesus. We don’t talk about our faith. We don’t invite
people to church. We’re so busy trying not to “offend” anyone that we don’t share
the most important gift we’ve ever received.
And we ignore the very real troubles of others. We throw
out promises to pray but do we? We know we should help but we’re just too busy.
We have loads of excuses – frequently blaming the very person we should help. We
always should ask Jesus to guide us. People see Him through our actions, not by
hearing empty words.
Does your life point people to the light of Jesus?
Think about it.
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