June 16, 2012

“Light Speaking”

Scripture:

 

1 Kings 17:24

Then the woman told Elijah, “Now I know for sure that you are a man of God, and that the LORD truly speaks through you.” (NLT)

Observation:

We don’t have to produce spiritual miracles of healing the sick or raising the dead back to life in order to prove to the world that we belong to God—that we truly are His children. With the fallen state of darkness that this world is experiencing it’s never easy living in God’s Light, for we must function in a world that denies the Truth and hates the very Name of Jesus Christ. And no matter how great the desire or how hard we try to walk with God, it will always be a daily challenge until that day of our Lord’s return. Because of our sinful nature all people borne into this world become children of wrath (Ephesians 2:1-3) and without the saving power of God found only in the life and death of His Son we will die children of wrath as well. While the incarnate Jesus Christ lived on this earth He set the standard for all people to live by—standards that go against the very grain of the world’s self-centered standards. And as believers in God’s redemptive plan we can choose to speak the good fight and back up our words by living them, or we can speak the good fight to impress others and continue living as the world does.

Application:

With the power that Satan has over this world we have the ability to easily fool other people, but it is utterly impossible to fool the Creator because He knows what is in every heart He creates, and will surely put to test every believer (Proverbs 17:3) that will show the world (and the one tested) where they truly stand. You are either with God or against Him and being lukewarm is a dangerous game to play, my friends (Revelation 3:15-16). The surest way to draw others into the saving Light of Christ is by speaking the truth in love and then living in that Truth for others to see. And if you ever begin to slide back into the darkness of this world (which is easy to do), you can be sure that if your heart is right, the Lord will snatch you back into the Light where you belong. And knowing we will always fall short of God’s Glorious Standard until our sanctification is complete, we can trust that when we speak and live in the Truth, we have God as our Rock and the Son as our Hope. For when we live and love like Jesus our Lord, the world around us will not only watch and listen a bit more closely to the Truth that pours out from our lives, but miraculously we will see the most unlikely people drawn into God’s Light to be forever changed for the Glory of the Most High!

Prayer:

Thank You, O God, for showing us how to live right in a world that believes living wrong is right. Thank You for the Light that exposes the darkness of this world for what it truly is—disobedience to You, our perfectly righteous Creator who, because of Your Power and abundant mercy and grace and love for us made a way for anyone to defeat this world and live in Your Presence forever!

Amen