Today many churches will celebrate Epiphany, which celebrates when the wisemen followed the star to find Jesus in Bethlehem, and then took the message of Him to the Gentiles. In today's writing, "SHINE," we read about how the stars in the dark night sky can light our way. May your life be illuminated!
Blessings,
Jan
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Today's Devotional:
"SHINE"
by
Jan Andersen
When something shines brightly it catches our attention. If we are walking along and catch a glimpse of something bright down by our feet, we often stop to look and see what it is. It could be a coin or some treasure that we might want to pick up. We also want to make sure it isn’t something important that we accidentally dropped, like our keys!
When we are in deep darkness it can be unsettling. If we are walking alone outside in the dark with no light around, we can be fearful for our safety. Not only could we possibly step wrong or into a hole or object, we are at risk from anyone wishing to do us harm. Heavy cloud cover overhead can block out any night time celestial light, and having no manmade light to substitute like streetlights, flashlights or cell phones makes it that much worse.
But if the skies are clear and there is a full moon, our eyes can adjust to the darkness and we begin to see more of our surroundings. The further away we are from the manmade lights of a city, the darker our surroundings may be, but the more stars we can see. It isn’t that those stars were not there before, but they shine even brighter to our eyes when we are surrounded by greater darkness.
Life can send us a lot of oppressive dark days as we struggle with our difficulties here on earth. On top of that, Satan sends heavy cloud-cover day and night to hide any view of our celestial Light, our heavenly Father! But the Holy Spirit blows those clouds away for us as He builds us up and sustains our faith. The darker the devil tries to make our lives, the brighter the stars shine in heaven to guide us, piercing the black sky with God’s light, life, and love. His light catches our eye and helps us focus on Him through it all.
John 1:5 ESV In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
If we have accidentally “dropped” our faith, God will make it shine to “catch our eye” by reminding us in some way that He is still there to help us through. He will draw us back to Him and refocus our faith in Christ with his Holy Spirit. As we trust and lean on Him more, then we too will begin to shine, spreading his Light to the whole world!
Dear Father in heaven, thank you for being the Light shining in my darkness so that I am not completely overcome by it. Always draw me back to You whenever I pull away. Help me to shine your Light to others through my words and actions. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
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Song:
SHINE JESUS SHINE
Maranatha! Music
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Prayers are lifted up daily for you by the Devotional Writers and the Monthly Writing Staff of Women's Focus Ministries
Blog writers:
Sandy Billingham, Karen Bennett,
Brother Thomas Ukwute, Jody Ward,
Bre Miller, Lynda Kinnard, Amie Spruiell,
Debbie Rodriguez, Carol Steficek,
Jan Andersen and Corinne Mustafa
Jan,
ReplyDeleteYou never cease to amaze me with your thoughts ans insights
Love it,
Corinne Mustafa