The Light Within Us
Key Verse: Luke 8:16a
“No one lights a lamp and then covers it with a bowl or hides it under a bed…”
Additional Reading: Luke 8:16-18
Jesus said of himself: “I am the Light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness but will have the light of life” (John 8:12). When we accept Jesus and ask Him into our lives, He brings His light into us.
Our Key Verse for today reminds us that no one takes a light and covers it thus preventing it from shining. So it is with the light within us. The light of Jesus shines. No authentic Christ-follower prevents that light from shining.
Some people declare that these words are directed to those who, out of fear, don’t “witness” the way that they should. However, the Word of God is telling us that the light within us is going to shine and doesn’t need bravery on our part to make it happen. It may take bravery to talk to someone about Jesus, but Jesus’s light shines in our lives in far more ways than simply through our talk!
Jesus is a transformer and those who have Him will be transformed. That transformation is normally a slow steady process, making us more and more like Jesus. Since God hates pride, He rarely lets an individual see our own fruit of His light lest we become prideful.
A person who talks a lot about Jesus to everyone they meet, often (but not always) is someone who feels that God uses them only when they are talking about Jesus. These people can be used of God, but many times they are turning people of our world off because of their constant pushing of Jesus. Jesus doesn’t need us to be religious fanatics, in that sense.
Jesus needs us to live our lives according to the principles that He taught when He was on earth. He needs us to stay in step with the Spirit that lives within us, so that we will talk when we need to and be quiet when He wants us to. We will be surprised someday to know that our greatest “witnessing” was caught rather than taught! An example of Jesus’s love is more powerful than any talking about Jesus’s love! We need not worry about “witnessing”, if you have Jesus in you, you have the light of the world shining through you!!
As I said, we need to read the principles of Jesus’s teaching and then go live them out as best we can.
The last verse of our Additional Reading for today is an interesting verse. Jesus reminds His followers that if they truly listen to His teachings, then they will be given more understanding in the future. But for “those who are not listening, even what they think they understand will be taken away from them” (Luke 8:18).
In my opinion, Jesus is painting a picture of a person who has stopped listening to the things they had once read in the Bible. They now are listening more to worldly opinions than to what the Spirit of God is trying to say to them. These followers soon stop following Jesus and are now following the people of this world. They may still show up for church, but through the week they have no fruit of God’s Spirit in them! They now talk more like the world and act more like the world rather than letting the things of this world slowly go dim in them.
Father, please give me eyes to see my own spiritual condition. Grant me more understanding of who you are in me! In Jesus’s Name I pray, amen.