“You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden.” |
—Matthew 5:14 |
One minute you are drying off from your morning shower. The next minute… Poof! The lights go out.
“Nuts!” you shout. “The power’s out!”
You scramble to find your smartphone in the dark. Finding it, you click on the power company’s bookmark in your web browser. A few more clicks and you report the outage.
Yet, there you stand, in the total darkness of the windowless bathroom, dripping wet, with no light to see what you’re doing. You struggle to dry off, all the while you feel a rising resentment toward the relentless darkness.
“Why today of all days?” you ask in anger to no one in particular.
Then, there’s a knock on the bathroom door. Your wife gently opens the door and hands you a powerful flashlight that you keep charged for just such occasions. And, suddenly the darkness is dispelled with the press of a switch on the flashlight. Once again, you can see what you’re doing.
Actually, we live in a world darkened by ages upon ages of sinful behavior. The sins of all who have lived before us have compounded over the centuries. We have contributed to the darkness with our own sins. But, through the blood of Jesus, our sins have been cleansed. The Light of Christ’s Presence has flooded into our lives. Jesus spoke these words to His followers, as recorded in Matthew 5:14:
You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden.
We are the light of the world? Yes! We are! We are the ones God has chosen to dispel the darkness. We bring a holy Light streaming into the darkest corners of our culture. By means of the indwelling Holy Spirit, we shine Christ’s strong beam of holy Light, allowing Him to dispel the gloom of sin and death.
As we begin this new day, let’s not lose sight of our role in God’s plan. We are “Light-bearers.” We dispel darkness by allowing the Holy Spirit to transform every aspect of our being into lanterns of holiness. We are the light of the world!