Thank you for joining us for Reflections, short meditations on scripture intersecting life.

Show Notes

In today’s Reflections we are thinking about Numbers 6:24-26.

The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord turn His face toward you and give you peace.

It makes my heart full as I welcome, as I receive this blessing from the Lord. I must never forget that I am a child of His Light. In the Message Bible by Eugene Peterson called Conversations, he says “Since Christ has dawned in our lives, light not darkness, is the fundamental reality by which we live. And the radiance of His face bathes us with the blessings of new and emerging life.”

As Christ-followers, we need to be all about pushing back the darkness that is encroaching on our world, our countries, our states, our cities, our neighborhoods—and our families. Many people live in a spiritual state of darkness.

Join Only By Prayer in this Reflection by clicking the arrow below to see how we can reflect His light. You can also subscribe to this podcast on iTunes. Please leave us a review on iTunes if you desire.

Pray on!

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Christmas To Do-ers List

Day 4: Shine for Him

“We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him.” Matthew 2:2

Star Light, Star Bright

In the Christmas story, a bright star illuminating the night sky spark a years-long search for some astrologers. Three wisemen from a distant land notice a new, bright star in the sky and they search for answers to this phenomenon. They learn that this star signifies the birth a a new king, and they set aside everything else in their lives to follow the star. Every evening the light of the star guides them, it’s bright presence a constant source of direction and comfort and promise on their long journey through unfamiliar territory and uncertainty.

At long last they arrive to see the full power of the star shining directly on the little family. Overwhelmed, they place their gifts at the feet of the new King and worship Him.

We are Now the Torch Bearers

With the death and Resurrection of Jesus, God now wants us to be His light in a dark world. Are we comfortable shining for Him, or do we hide our light under a bushel basket? Let’s consider some ways we can shine for Christ:

Action Points:

1. We can ask the Holy Spirit to fill us up each day and then listen to how he directs our words and actions. Being obedient to His direction will help us to better love and minister to others. (John 14:26).
2. We can learn about spiritual gifts. Read 1 Corinthians 12, Romans 12:6-8, and Ephesians 4:11,12 for a list of some of the gifts. God wants us to use these to benefit others and by developing our gifts, we will certainly be letting our light shine.
3. Don’t underestimate the power of a daily time spent in the word combined with prayer. As we become transformed into His image, as we go about the normal activities of our days, His spirit will shine through us.

Never think that your gifts or life is too small or ordinary to make a difference. Just as the tiny flashlight beside my bed brought the whole room into clear focus,

the light of your life may be exactly what brings Jesus into focus for a family member, friend, or stranger.

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Please share your thoughts in the comment section and/or on our To Do-ers Facebook page. Enjoy today’s music The Star Still Shines as you reflect on the lesson.

“I am sending you to them to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.” Acts 26:17-18 (NIV)

For out third devotion this week, we are looking at stanza three of the poem:

FAST from apparent darkness; FEAST on the reality of God’s light.

(Click for the entire poem and for Monday and Tuesday’s devotion.)

In this stanza, we have the contrast between darkness and light, which stands for evil and good or Satan and God. As I was meditating on darkness and light and therefore good and evil, the question popped into my head, “There’s such an obvious difference between good and evil. Why do so many people get drawn into darkness?” But then God sent the thought back to me, “Is it really so obvious to others? Remember this verse in 2 Corinthians 11:14, ‘And no wonder, for Satan masquerades as an angel of light.'”

I had forgotten about that verse. So many times Satan makes sin or darkness look like fun. I can remember many times when I was a child and wanted to do something that my parents would not let me do; I thought they were being overprotective and just didn’t want me to have fun, when in reality they could see something I could not: the inherent danger or darkness in that situation that they wanted to protect me from. As a child, I did not have the wisdom or discernment to see that; as older, wiser parents, they did. Satan often makes sin appealing, so that we will yield to it. Then the next time, it’s easier to say yes to a more egregious sin. Before we know it, we are on a slippery slide to doing all kinds of things we never thought we would do. We can see now how someone can commit an obvious sin, like murder. Probably in most cases, a person who commits a terrible crime has a long history of saying yes to lesser offenses, which lulled their conscience to sleep and set the scene for greater sins.

So in this Holy Week, we can see much darkness involved in Jesus’ crucifixion. The forces of evil thought they had won the battle, but, praise God, they underestimated the power of God, of light, to win over the powers of darkness. The Greek word for light is phos, and some of its meanings include truth and knowledge. God’s light is always the truth, the whole truth, and nothin’ but the truth, as the old saying goes. Another interesting meaning regarding light, is that we should be sharing this light and wisdom with others. Matthew 5:15 tells us that we should not light a candle and hide it under a bushel basket; no, we are to set it out so that it lights up the whole house and everyone can see it. If you doubt the power of little old you shining your light to others, try the experiment of going into a dark room of your home and lighting one candle to see the power that light has to dispel darkness!

Application: Is there a sin you have been allowing to continue in your life because you think it’s not a big deal? Let’s work on rooting out the sin the Holy Spirit is convicting us about before we reap a harvest of pain in our lives or someone else’s. Let’s also share the light we have with other people as God gives us opportunities in His perfect timing.

Prayer: Jesus, thank you for breaking the power of darkness by your death on the cross. May we never take that sacrifice lightly or become oblivious to the sin in our own hearts and lives. Give us the courage and discernment to know when to share that light with others. Amen.

Image courtesy of foto76 / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

I love to take walks. Early summer mornings are my favorite time to walk. How about you? Do you like to walk in the rain? How about in the snow? God also liked to take walks. He met with Adam in the garden and walked with him.  Like Adam, God calls us to walk  with Him also…in love, light and wisdom. To do the study Walking in Love, Light and Wisdom, please click on the link.

Free images from FreeDigitalPhotos.net

God set them in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the earth and to rule over the day and over the   night, and to divide the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good.”                                                     Genesis 1:17,18

I am overwhelmed at the beauty God blesses us with. What are ways that I can bring beauty into other people’s lives each day? Lord, show me how to share this with others. Perhaps in a …

beautiful meal I cook and give away,

a scarf I knit for a friend,

a smile I share with a stranger,

a prayer I pray.

What are other ways we can share God’s beauty? Feel free to add your thoughts!

I was reading through a book on prayer, and I came across this ancient prayer, which I later found out is an excerpt from a prayer called St. Patrick’s Breastplate. I love the cadence and beauty of the spoken words of this prayer.

 St. Patrick’s Breastplate

Christ as a light

Illumine and guide me.

Christ as a shield O’ershadow me.

Christ under me;

Christ over me;

Christ beside me

On my left and my right.

This day be within and without me.

Lowly and meek yet All-powerful.

Be in the heart of each to whom I speak;

In the mouth of each who speaks unto me.

This day be within and without me,

Lowly and meek yet All-powerful.

Christ as a light;

Christ as a shield;

Christ beside me

On my left and my right.

Amen.

This is such a beautiful, simple prayer to start off your morning prayer time, yet so comprehensive. The prayer begins by reminding us that Jesus is our light for the journey of life that we are on (John 1:4-5), and that each morning we can pray for Him to guide us through our day, to help us stay on His path and not wander off of it.

The next verse reminds us that Christ is our shield, our protection, as Psalm 3:3 tells us. And we need only read through Ephesians 6:10-20 to see the importance of having our shield of faith securely in place for the day. It is only with this shield that we can quench all the fiery darts of our enemy.

The next four verses are so lovely. They remind us that Christ has us completely enveloped with His love and presence. This evokes Psalm 139: 7-12 for me. How completely reassuring to realize that Christ has us hemmed in! Sometimes the words hemmed in have a bad connotation, but not in this instance. We can be assured that Jesus is with us everywhere, always. He’ll be with us in that presentation for work, at home with the children, as we travel, when we have that difficult conversation.

We are then reminded to pray for ourselves and those we meet throughout the day as James 5:16 says, to remember that life is not just “all about us.” Christ wants us to shift our focus onto the people in our circle of influence.

Finally, this prayer points us to Jesus’ character and attributes. Though he was born to a lowly family, He is the All-powerful One as seen in Ephesians 3:20, which means that nothing we face is beyond Jesus. He can handle it all and, consequently, so can we. Actually, His word says we can do above all that we think possible with Him by our sides.

I love praying some of the ancient prayers of the faith. They encourage me in my walk and then inspire me to tell God the thoughts and prayers of my own heart.

I hope they do for you too.

Do you have a favorite prayer? Share it below if you’d like.

Pray on!