Arise! Shine!

Posted On January 30, 2022

“Arise, shine!
For your light has come;
the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.”

Isaiah 60:1 ISV

“But whatever is good and perfect comes to us from God, the Creator of all light,
and he shines forever without change or shadow.”

James 1:17 TLB

Isaiah 60:1 has been on my mind lately. It has been the focus of a few of my recent journal entries, so I thought it would be a good topic for this week’s post. While trying to figure out what I should say about it, I realized that the Holy Spirit has already given me plenty of direction — it’s all in my journal!

Looking back at my notes and reflections on what I’ve read, I realized that maybe they’re called “reflections” for a reason. As I have received light and hope from above, I can in turn reflect that light out to you. So this week I would like to share with you some of the wisdom I have received. I pray it is a blessing for you as it has been for me!

I Feel Like I’m Barely Flickering

I want to shine, but I feel like I’m barely flickering. Help me to do better.
Help my faith to get stronger.

I have a journal I write in almost every day that I call my Spirit journal. It’s a prayer journal combined with notes on my daily devotional and Scripture readings. I begin each entry with “H. S.,” which stands for Holy Spirit, and write out whatever is on my mind. Then I go to my readings and listen for His answer. He often speaks to my specific concerns.

The words under the picture above are taken from one of my recent journal entries. When I wrote them, I was lamenting the fact that it seems like my faith journey is often three steps forward and two steps back. I feel like I’m slowly making headway, but it’s a long, frustrating process. In case you have faced similar struggles, and I’m willing to bet we all have at one time or another, I want to share what I feel the Holy Spirit communicated to me. Here are the “margin notes” I recorded from that day’s readings:

Trust in the Lord. God lovingly crafts every detail of your life. Reflect God’s love to others by making time for them. Live righteously. Nurture your heart with God’s goodness. God makes beauty out of our messes.

When we feel like our flame is inadequate, the first thing we need to do is trust God. He watches over every aspect of our lives, and He can multiply even the tiniest flicker of faith to accomplish great things. When we are tempted to give up because we feel unworthy to be used by Him, He reminds us that He can make something beautiful out of our imperfect, messy lives.

The enemy tries to make us believe that we aren’t good enough, that God can’t use us, and that we should just stop trying. His goal is to keep us down. But God says, Arise! We don’t need to have everything figured out — we just need to be willing to get up and try! As we keep offering ourselves to God, letting Him fill us with His love and His grace, He empowers us to live the way He wants us to live. We are not in this alone. God is always there for us, ready and willing to help. In fact, doing likewise for others is a good way to fan our flame. As we share God’s love by making time for the people around us, we begin to shine just a little bit brighter.

“The Lord watches over all who love him”

Psalm 145:20 NIV

Please Help Me Learn How to Shine

I do believe Your promises, and I know that my faith in them is crucial to them being fulfilled.
If I don’t believe You and obey You, I will miss out. Please tell me what I need to know today.
Please help me learn how to shine.

When I wrote these words, I was thinking about the Israelites wandering in the desert for forty years because of their lack of faith. God had led them to the promised land, but then they had refused to enter it. As a consequence of their disobedience, an entire generation was left roaming in the wilderness until they died.

I see a lot of myself in them. I have struggled with doubt and disobedience, unwilling to grab hold of God’s promises. Maybe you have, too. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to spend the rest of my life wandering aimlessly through the wilderness! I want to enter into the fulfillment of God’s promises and become all He wants me to be. That’s what God wants, too . . . for each one of us. Here are the notes from my readings that day:

Forgive others. Rejoice in hope, be patient, and keep praying. Keep your conscience clear. Stay connected to Christ. God has placed you exactly where He wants you to be. Find courage in God’s grace and strength. Love God more than anything. Give your time and devotion to Him. Give God glory and honor.

God wants us to let His promises take root in us and transform who we are. As we stay connected to Him through prayer and through His Word, we learn to draw strength and courage from Him. And we learn to recognize His voice so that we understand what He’s calling us to do. God loves us more than we can comprehend. And He longs for us to love Him in return with all that we are, devoting our time and ourselves to His glory.

When we let Him remake our hearts through the power of His grace, He will strengthen our faith so that we will obey Him confidently no matter what He asks of us. We will become more and more like Christ — forgiving, hopeful, patient, righteous, and loving. God has placed us exactly where He wants us to be so that we can do the work He has for us to do. Let’s embrace His promises and honor Him with our lives. Let’s stay connected to Him and listen for His voice. Finally, let’s step out in faith and obey whatever He asks of us, doing everything for His glory. This is how we learn how to shine.

“Rejoice in our confident hope. Be patient in trouble, and keep on praying.”

Romans 12:12 NLT

Please Use Me to Shine Your Love and Your Hope

Thank You for bringing me this far. Thank You for all You’ve taught me. Please keep working in my life to make me what You want me to be. Please use me to shine Your love and Your hope.

Every time I fill up a journal and get ready to break in a new one, it feels like a milestone. The words above came from my last entry in the journal I just finished. One of my readings that day included the Scripture verse that had already been on my mind — Isaiah 60:1 — so I figured that God wanted me to pay special attention to it. That’s why I chose it for this week’s topic. Here are my notes from that day’s readings:

Be perfect by giving yourself to others. Walk by the Spirit. Don’t second-guess the Lord’s prompting. Keep your ears open. Trust Him and go forward. Jesus has always been with you. Turn to Him for help and comfort. Show sacrificial love to God. Show sacrificial love to others. Be transformed and do His perfect will. Arise and shine!

One of my devotionals (Our Daily Bread, Jan. 29) mentioned that the word “perfect” doesn’t mean sinless. We are human and we will make mistakes. Instead, it said that perfection means continuing to grow and becoming mature enough to live for others. If you will forgive a math reference, the idea of Christian perfection reminds me of a mathematical limit: When we talk about the limit of a function, we mean the value that the output approaches as the input approaches a certain value. It never actually reaches this value, but it keeps getting closer and closer to it forever.

The same is true for us. As our input (what we fill our minds and hearts with) gets closer and closer to what God values, our output (our words and actions) does the same. If we fill ourselves with more and more of God’s light, our output will begin to shine brighter and brighter. We increase our God-valued input by staying connected to God, by letting His love and His grace fill our hearts, by turning to Christ for help and comfort, by learning to hear and obey the promptings of the Holy Spirit, and by trusting His leading.

As we let God’s light shine into us more and more, we will be transformed. We will love God more and more. Our faith will increase without bound. Our lives will become our testimony, and our capacity to love others will expand until we think more of them than we do of ourselves. We will shine God’s love and God’s hope to everyone we meet. In short, we will be equipped to do God’s “good, pleasing and perfect will” (Romans 12:2 NIV). Christian perfection means to keep shining a little brighter every day.

“This is how we know what love is: Christ gave his life for us.
We too, then, ought to give our lives for others!”

1 John 3:16 GNT

This week’s Scripture passages remind us to get up every day and let God fill us with His light. This is how we learn how to shine. God has raised us up with Christ (Ephesians 2:6), so let’s not let anything get us down. God doesn’t want us to wander aimlessly in the wilderness. He wants to lead us into His radiant promises for our lives. He’s got amazing things in store . . .

So let’s get up and get glowing!

“The Lord bless you and keep you;
the Lord make his face shine on you
and be gracious to you;
the Lord turn his face toward you
and give you peace.”

Numbers 6:24-26 NIV

References:

Although I did not include any direct quotes except from Scripture this week, here are the resources I am currently using for my personal study. I am grateful to the authors for allowing the Holy Spirit to speak through their wise and encouraging words.

• First 5 Daily Bible Study App, Proverbs 31 Ministries, https://first5.org/
• Our Daily Bread, volume 66, numbers 10-12, January-March 2022.
• Stanley, Charles F. God’s Purpose for Your Life: 365 Devotions. Thomas Nelson, 2020.
• YouVersion Bible App, Life.Church, https://www.youversion.com/the-bible-app/

Images:

• Sunrise featured image by Konevi from Pexels
• Shining Star image by ipicgr from Pixabay
• Tea Light Image by Ri Butov from Pixabay (edited by me)
• Bokeh Candle image by Jeremy Kyejo from Pixabay
• Meadow image by Larisa Koshkina from Pixabay