Lord, Shine Your Light!

LORD, SHINE YOUR LIGHT!That little insight yesterday on transparency and honesty vs. hypocrisy still has me excited. I see all around me, Christians that really love the Lord, my brothers and sisters, who are crying out just like I am, for the Lord to search our hearts, drive out anything that is not pure, and shine His light into us, so we can in turn shine the brightness of His glory out to others. I see the heart-felt sincerity and desire to radiate Jesus.God hears those cries, and answers by shining the light of His Word deep into every corner of our hearts. When there is no hypocrisy there, no walls, no opaque barriers, then His light will purge out every shadow, every trace of darkness, and we will shine like the sun. But if there’s something we’re not willing to deal with, or yield to Him, then we’ll put up some kind of barrier to hide that thing… an opaque wall of hypocrisy. We could even paint a beautiful mural of a window on that wall, and it could look so realistic, but it’s still a wall. It’s opaque. No light gets through. In or out.

There are so many reasons people, even sincere Christians, put up those walls. Maybe pride. Not willing to admit they were wrong when so many look up to them as being so right. Maybe it’s the potential cost of losing something they hold so dear and valuable. Yes, God can ask you to give to Him what He has given to you in the first place. Is there anything you have that He hasn’t given you, anyway? Think of Abraham not withholding his son, Isaac, …the long-awaited fulfillment of God’s promise, the joy of his life.

Personally, I’ve been at the place many times where I’ve poured out my heart to the Lord, with tears, for Him to search me, purge me, open my eyes – in true sincerity and humility, and in total surrender. And He’s answered me. And I’ve felt SO wonderful, SO blessed, SO thankful, …SO totally clean! But maybe years later, He shows me something that was wrong in my life, all the way back then, that I didn’t see then. How could that be? Had I not really been sincere, humble, and yielded all those times? Of course I was… as much as I knew how. But you can GROW in your capacity to handle the light.

I’ve learned that God will only show you what you can handle at the time. Thirty-plus years into my walk with God, I’ve had His still, small voice shake me up so strong, that I truly felt I couldn’t physically handle any more. And I knew there WAS more that He was sparing me. One of those times, I slammed my Bible shut, and couldn’t work up the courage to open it for 3 days. It was the FEAR OF GOD!

But along with the fear, came His overwhelming love. When I had thought I was doing pretty good, and pleasing to God, He had known all along the pride and hypocrisy, and whatever, that had been in my life, and He STILL LOVED ME! He was correcting me with the gentleness of a Father’s love for a son in whom He delighted. He could have crushed me, and ground me to powder, …and justly…But He didn’t! It was then that I was finally getting to KNOW GOD! God is LOVE!

Now I have a lot more compassion, and understanding, and patience, with any who don’t know what I know, and see what I see; or maybe even misunderstand me, and oppose me. I know that when I have been faithful in what the Lord has given me now, He will have MORE to open up to me, and it’s very possible that other brother has already learned those things that I’m about to learn. The more I know and understand, the more I see the vastness of what I don’t know yet.

One thing for sure, I fear God, but I am no longer afraid of His light shining anywhere He wants to shine it. He loves me! And He LOVES YOU! So we don’t have to hide anything. There is no fear in love. God is SO good!