“So may all your enemies perish, Lord! But may all who love you be like the sun when it rises in its strength.” – Judges 5:31a
About a month or so ago I was reading through the book of Judges & I stumbled over this little verse & it stopped me in my tracks. Many of you know we recently experienced a total solar eclipse across the US on August 21st. If you were anywhere near the path of totality you were probably outside with eclipse glasses or a viewing box watching this once-in-a-lifetime experience. We were in an area where we would see a 93% eclipse & as incredible as it was it showed me the true power of the sun…& this verse reminded me of that.
You see, even at the climax of the eclipse, where we could only see 7% of the sun, it was still pretty bright outside. It looked like it was almost sunset even though it was 2:30 in the afternoon. The temperature went from the mid-80s to the high-70s. It was incredible & it demonstrated the incredible power of the sun…even at over 92 million miles away & only being able to see 7% of its power.
Between that experience & this verse, it struck me that this is what our lives should be like, as Christians. Our lives should reflect Christ & His gospel so much that it is as strong as the sun, as she says, “when it rises in its strength.” There should be no doubting who we are & Whose we are. When the sun comes up it illuminates everything, it shines light on the world, it helps us see, it shows us the beauty around us. When we rise up each day, we should be a light in the world for Christ, help point people to Him, & share His incredible love, grace, & mercy.
Like the sun, our light & passion for God should be so strong that it still continues to unquestionably shine…even when things come up in our lives, even when we go through difficult situations that try to put out or block it. Those situations may affect how we shine our light for Christ, but we shouldn’t let them put it out, altogether.
And the sun doesn’t just magically burn up in the sky…it has a source…a fuel, something that allows it to continually burn. Again, we are the same. The fuel for our light is the time we spend with God in the Bible & in prayer. If we aren’t soaking in His word daily then we begin to run low on fuel & our light becomes a little dimmer the longer we go. If we go around looking for some other kind of fuel, nothing else will make THAT light shine, not like the fuel God gives us.
So today…on this Monday…no matter what the weather of life looks like, no matter what clouds are out there, no matter if there’s something as big as the Moon standing in your way, fuel up in the Lord, let His fire burn in you, & keep shining His light in this world with everything in you. Literally, the Lord knows this world needs His light…& He put you here to shine it, so shine it bright.
Be blessed, friends.