Greetings in the name of the Prince of Peace…who calms all of life’s storms, Jesus Christ – THE Risen Saviour! I trust that all is well in your world today and that all your plans for Easter are falling into place. As this is a damp, dreary-looking day, I hope you will let – “this little light of mine, I’m going to let it shine!” – and confuse everyone around you. Today I will be praying for you, asking Father to fill you with a happiness that will affect every person and situation that comes your way.
I have been thinking about that song referenced above: “This little light of mine” – it is both encouraging and challenging to consider our responsibilities to the world around us. We wonder many times what difference we can make and I remember that children’s song that many of us sang: “Many kinds of darkness in this world are found – Sin and want and sorrow (political unrest and terrorist attacks)- So we must shine – You in your small corner and I in mine.” I have read the quote: “All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men (women) to do nothing” – Edmund Burke. All that is necessary for you and I is – to shine! Jesus told us that we are – lights in this world…and lights shine: Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father in heaven. Matthew 5:16.
What does that mean in a practical sense? It means speaking with courtesy – having a quick smile – stopping to thank someone – apologizing when we are wrong – helping someone who is struggling – noticing someone stop on the pathway and stopping to listen and giving a hand – and being a friend. I know that this is difficult. As Christ-followers we live in an upside-down kingdom where to find we must lose, to live we must die, and to keep we give away. We don’t make sense to the world…and we don’t always make sense to ourselves.
In my reading of Psalms today, I read this declaration: Here’s my life motto, the truth I live by: I will guard my ways for all of my days. I will speak only what is right, guarding what I speak. Psalm 39:1 TPT. A few verses later as the psalmist ponders the difficulty of life and of being a godly person, he says: Lord, listen to all my tender cries. Read every tear, like liquid words that plead for Your help. Psalm 39:12a TPT. We are not expected to shine for Jesus with our own strength and resources…but with His. We are to “cry out to Him” and not just after the fact but before. There is a song that I like…”what’s new, you ask”…that I believe is actually a prayer: Dear God…”Today I going to try and change the world” – Johnny Reid. The song reveals that is the simple things…lighting up our little corner of the world.
Be blessed to-day…and “SHINE!”