How Bright is Your Light?

“…become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe as you hold out the word of life…” Philippians 2:15-16a

Is it just me, or is there hardly a different anymore between the lifestyles, attitudes and value systems of followers of Christ and followers of the world? If people were merely watching your life and mine, would they be able to tell that we were followers of Jesus? What sets you and me apart as believers? I’m afraid the distinction is becomes less and less and our light as believers in this dark world is dulling. It is easy to say we love Jesus and talk about Him when things are going well. But it is how we handle crisis, temptation, tragedy, unforeseen circumstances, persecution, inconvenience and rush hour traffic :) that should truly allow our identity and hope in Jesus to shine bright in a depraved and desperate world. They are crooked and need to see a pattern of what it looks like to be straight. They are depraved and need an example of what it looks like to be moral.

Should you take on this challenge, read Romans 13:11-14, Ephesians 4:17-32; 5:15-21 and Matthew 5:3-12. Now make two columns down a page and under the left hand column, write down what it looks like to live in the world (the Bible also calls this living in darkness or your old man, which is your sinful nature before Christ) and under the right hand column, write down what it looks like to follow Christ (the Bible calls this living in the light or in the new man which is the new nature given to us when we give our lives to Christ). Now carefully study that list and take an honest evaluation at which column you primarily fall under? What needs to change in order for your light/ your life as a follower of Jesus to shine brighter? Take time to pray about this right now and ask Jesus to shine His light into the dark areas of your life so that your light might be radiant to lost souls (and to compromising believers!) around you. Matthew 5:16 says “…let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.”