How many of you, when the power is out, you enter a room (such as a bathroom) and instinctively flip the light-switch on without even thinking. In a brief instant of momentary confusion, you’re taken off guard when nothing happens. Then suddenly you remember what you knew all along … the power is out.
It’s habit. We knew the power was out. But from subconscious habit we flipped the light-switch on expecting results.
Our 9-week study over the Fruit of the Spirit has featured daily-verse background images which have contrasted light vs. darkness. This world in which we are living is a very dark place. The darkness feels overwhelming. People are searching for light. Eating out at restaurants … that brightens up any day! Hanging out with friends … that brightens up the day! Getting to go to a football game! … that certainly brightens up a day! Shopping! Vacationing!
But the “power” is going out. All those wonderful things that we’ve always counted on to brighten up our days and our lives are “going dark.” Our world is such a dark place. The darkness feels overwhelming. We’re reaching instinctively, out of habit, for the “light-switch” … but nothing is happening.
Even though the “power” is going out in our dark world all around us, the LIGHT of Jesus will never go out! Jesus is LIGHT! “ … I am the LIGHT of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the LIGHT of life.” – John 8:12
Not only is Jesus Himself LIGHT, Jesus has commissioned us to shine His LIGHT in our very dark world. “You are the LIGHT of the world … let your LIGHT shine before men …” – Matthew 5:14, 16
What does it look like for us to shine the LIGHT of Jesus?
- It looks like LOVE … in action!
- It looks like JOY … regardless of the circumstances.
- It looks like PEACE … a heart at PEACE in a world full of turmoil and chaos.
- It looks like PATIENCE … responding with PATIENCE in the face of conflict, hate, and rage.
- It looks like KINDNESS … acts and responses of KINDNESS regardless of benefit or outcome.
- It looks like GOODNESS … doing what is GOOD, RIGHT, and TRUE, even if it is counter cultural.
- It looks like FAITHFULNESS … consistently Loving, consistently Kind, consistently Patient, consistently doing what is Right & True.
- It looks like GENTLENESS … having a calm and gentle spirit in a world full of turmoil.
- It looks like SELF-CONTROL … in a world that has lost all control.
That’s a lot! How do we do this??
By the POWER of the Holy Spirit.
“I pray that you may know … His incomparably great POWER for us who believe. That POWER is like the working of His mighty strength, which He exerted in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come.” -Ephesians 1:18-21
When the “power” goes out … the LIGHT of Jesus will keep on shining bright!
