Prayer
Briefly prepare your heart in silence, and ask the Holy Spirit to awaken your sense of anticipation that God is about to speak to you through His Word. Then, before you read, I invite you to pray this simple prayer from Psalm 27:1 & 11.
Lord, You are my light and my salvation,
I shall not let fear control me.
You are the stronghold of my life,
I shall not be afraid.
Teach me your way, Lord,
and lead me in a straight path.
Amen.
Reading
36 Believe in the light while you have the light, so that you may become children of light.’
Jesus spoke these words to a crowd whose minds were still undecided about Him. He was urging them to believe in Him enough to entrust themselves to Him as the Lord and Guiding Light of their lives, while they still had the chance. Many of them did not do so.
Our context is very different, of course. We come to know Jesus as the Lord and Guiding Light of our lives through the witness of others, the words of the Bible, and by the work of the Spirit within us, leading us to faith.
But, as His modern-day disciples, it is just as important for us to trust and follow the Light that Jesus Christ shines on our lives day by day. We can easily become confused by our competing desires, peer pressure, or wrong priorities, and the longer we know the right thing to do but refrain from doing it, the more we become bound up by our own inaction. Eventually, we may even convince ourselves that we don’t really know what the right thing is to do.
Likewise, there are some things that Jesus may lead us to do or say for which the time or opportunity is limited. They will need to be said and done with urgency, or the moment for saying and doing them will have passed.
Jesus still calls us today to live by His Light, to do so with immediacy and urgency, and with the strength and determination born of great conviction.
Will you act in accordance with His Light today? Will you do so speedily?
Be encouraged! The more we choose to live by His Light, the stronger our convictions will become, and the clearer we will see by His Light. The competing voices will grow quieter. They will never totally go away in this fallen world, but we will grow to see the Light more clearly as we practice obedience to Him.
Contemplation
Please take time to ponder what Jesus has commanded us. Turn these declarations over and over in your mind. Keep them in mind throughout the day and live in step with Your King, Jesus.
As a disciple of Jesus Christ:
- I will trust the Light Jesus shines on my life today.
- I will walk in His Light without delay.
Holy Spirit, please help me to see the Light Jesus shines on my way today, and empower me to walk in that Light. Amen.
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