Let Your Light Shine

In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.

(Matthew 5:16)

When my paternal grandparents were alive, it was very apparent they were Christians. Everyone who knew them, never had any reason to question their faith and many of them expressed their personal faith was bolstered. Their lifestyle projected their love for Jesus and his love for them. No one who met them would ever doubt they were believers in Christ. Their lives were centered around the church and whatever they could do to further the work of the kingdom of God.

When I was a child, I lived across the street from my grandparents and they taught me to believe also. Were they perfect, of course not, they were regular people who lived as righteously as they could. As I reached adolescence however, I turned away from everything they demonstrated to me by their lives and taught me with word and deed. After they passed, even though I didn’t believe in God, I even said, ‘if there is a heaven, I know where they are.’ It was the seed they planted and watered by the prayers of others that lead me back to Christ.

A Sunday school teacher asked her class who saints were. A little girl, thinking of the figures in the stained-glass windows of the church answered, “Those are the people the light shines through.” She was right in a sense, but saints are not special holy people in church history. Every believer is a saint and everyone who sees us should know it. We should all be like those figures in the stained-glass windows. Christ’s light should always shine through us.

Everything about us should show Jesus to the world. If our actions and reactions make us look like the rest of the unbelieving world, then we are failing as followers of Jesus. But if we show them our love by giving of our time and money to everyone who needs our help, then the world will see there is something different about us. They will wonder what it is, and maybe want it for themselves. That will give us the opportunity to tell them about our Father in heaven and the redeeming grace of his Son, Jesus Christ.

Heavenly Father, you created light on the very first day of Creation. You are the light of the world. It’s not just a light like the one that comes on in the refrigerator when we open the door. It’s a light that illuminates our hearts when we repent and are baptized. However, some of us are better at hiding that light in our hearts, than showing it to an unbelieving and lost world. Our light is expressed in the way we show Christ’s love for others through our actions. So, Lord, give us a heart for the lost and heavily burdened people we encounter. If we have the means, help us to cheerfully open our wallets and give to causes to help the needy. Remind us that we can’t expect them to praise you if they don’t know you are the reason we love them, and why we want to do the good deeds we do. We praise you for the light you’ve placed in our hearts. We pray that we will become better and better and showing our light to the world around us. In Jesus’ name, we pray!