FRIDAY May 19th
Matthew 5:14-16
‘You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.’
We are without any doubt living in a dark-world, darkness is all around us. The challenge to us here is that we are not just as we saw in the previous verse the salt of the earth, we are called to be light in this world, but are we truly shining as the light we should be in this dark world OR are we allowing so much of the worlds rubbish to fill our lives that the light is being snuffed out, or ineffective. It may also be that we are we doing what v15 says, hiding our light under a basket.
The world needs light, it needs the light of the gospel, it needs Jesus who is the light of the world, it needs you and me, that is men a women who have had our lives transformed by the gospel.
Over this last winter, we have been switching the lights in our house off more often than we have ever done before to save electric and in turn to cut costs! I wonder if too often we can attempt to turn off the light that should be shining through our lives – not to save electric, but rather to save ourselves from maybe feeling embarrassed or awkward among unbelievers, we want to save face, we don’t want to be excluded or feel different. But Jesus says ‘Let your light shine before others’.
By failing to be the light that we should be we are failing to give opportunity for God to be glorified, this tells me that if we are willing to testify through our lives by letting our light shine and maybe for example in a group of a dozen, even if eleven might reject what we have to say or mock us and just one person shows an interest, it is worth it because it leads to our heavenly Father being glorified.