Burn to shine!
Verse for Today: Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Isaiah 60:1 – “Arise and shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord rises upon you”.
God’s children are the light of the world. As such their primary responsibility is to shine and give direction to those who are in darkness. Light is to be kept on a stand so that it will spread its brightness to all around for them to see their pathways and travel towards Heaven. They are duty bound to show those in darkness the way forward. As light, they will also be able to prevent others from going the wrong way and help them to choose the right and only way. God commands all His children to rise up and shine and create an impact in the world around them. Thus when the glory of the Lord is seen in them by others around them, these children of darkness will also be able to see the right way to go forward. So God wants to remind His children today that they must rise up and shine for Him. It certainly is a great privilege for them to shine which is not given by God to any other creatures including the angels. To rise and shine means to take a stand for the Lord and be willing to be singled out by the world. But we must realize that shining is not for the sake of the light, but for others. It is not for others to be attracted to the light, but for them to see the way because of the light. So light is only a means and a source of help for others and not an end in itself. When we become the children of God, the glory of God is invested in us. This is how we become the light of the world and be enabled to shine for the sake of the world. So if the light that we received is kept under a bushel, it becomes ineffective and will have no impact in the world. Light is to burn off for others and in the process, it is to give warmth to the cold lives which are around us. When we burn for Jesus, the warmth of the Christian life and the aroma of the new creation in us will brighten up and make the lives around us warm up and become sensitive to the love of God. It will thus produce the refreshing fragrance of God’s life in and through us.
Dear reader, are you burning like a lamp each day for Jesus? Do you have an inner craving and passion to burn for Jesus? Have you become sensitive to the call of the Lord to rise up and shine for Him? If the light in you is kept under cover, it would not be of any use to Jesus and others and will defeat its purpose. As you burn each day for Jesus, you will get yourself expended for the sake of those around you who are living in spiritual darkness. Your life which burns off for Jesus is a life of suffering because burning is a painful process for the object that is on fire. The world around might look at you and mock you because you are being used up and not built up in this world for its recognition and appreciation. But when you burn off for Jesus, you are showing your willingness to walk the Calvary Road after your Lord who endured the mockery and ridicule of this world. It becomes your privilege to follow the Lord in His passion for the lost world. As you burn off, your spiritual life is being built up and your investment in Heaven keeps abounding. When you get yourself rejected and ignored by the world for the sake of the Lord, He will recognize you in the presence of the Father and the angles in Heaven. So let us renew our zeal and commitment to be burned off for Jesus so that others might see spiritual light and enter the spiritual kingdom of our Lord. Let us today become His torches and burn off for Him and allow Him to take glory through our lives rather than burn off all our energies to make ourselves great in this world.
Daniel 12:3 – Those who are wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars for ever and ever.
Thought for Today
The greatest privilege attached to our position as the light of the world is to be on fire and be able to burn off and shine for Jesus.
The greatest privilege attached to our position as the light of the world is to be on fire and be able to burn off and shine for Jesus.
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