SHINE
Do everything without complaining or arguing so that you will be blameless and pure, children of God without any fault. But you are living with evil people all around you, who have lost their sense of what is right. Among those people you shine like lights in a dark world, and you offer them the teaching that gives life.(Philippians 2:14-16 ERV)
Our assignment, much like Jesus assignment is to reveal God to the world. It reminds me of the old mission impossible. Perhaps the conversation in heaven was something like, “Son, Lay down your glory and go be born on the earth. Grow up like all children. Receive the Holy Spirit and power and reveal to the world what I am really like. After they get a good look, die for all the sins of the world and come home. We will leave the folks there to continue the mission.” He finished His part and now the Holy Spirit instructs us in how to accomplish our part.
Some time back we mentioned that Jesus felt it was more important for people see God that it was for Him to be God. The God He revealed to the world totally upset the concept that people had of God. Still, it seems that people tend to revert to what they thought God was like rather than the God that Jesus revealed.
And so it is up to us who believe and know God to reveal Him as He is. Our mission is to walk in the Holy Spirit and power. We are to shine like lights in a dark world. In order for us to do that, we need to have the mind that was in Christ. He knew God would take care of Him. This left Him free to reveal His Father to a lost world.
We can be sure God will take care of us if we will give up our claim of being god of our lives and trust that He knows what He is doing. He wants to heal through His children. He was to provide for and through His children. He wants to show that He is above all things. He wants the world to know that He is the kindest, most loving, most protective, most merciful, and most wonderful of all.
Can we trust Him to be God and then shine as He says we can and do? Our shining is not something we do on our own. We are the candle; He is the fire that makes us shine. A better picture for us is that we are a light bulb; He is the power that produces the light. With Christ in us we are the bulb with potential to light up the world.
Will we flip the switch? Flipping the switch says that we want Him to be Lord over all of our life. Flipping the switch says that we want to walk in His power and not our own. Flipping the switch says we believe there is power to do and be what He says we are and can do.
We cannot do or be what He calls us to without flipping that switch, or making the switch in our thinking and in our desires. Do we want people to know God as He really is? Do we want to know Him as He really is? Are we ready to shine? Flip the switch!