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| "See yourself through My eyes--you will see that you are extraordinary." |
Also, I am SOOOOO excited! I have Photoshop for the first time in several years, so I have created some inspirational Scripture/quotes for you. I will also share them intermittently throughout the school year.
Here is tomorrow's devotional. Be warned: It's REALLY long for a blog post--it will probably take you about ten minutes to read it. If you don't have time, just read for a few minutes each day until you do. At the end of the post is the song that partially inspired the devotional.
God gave me this devotional slowly
over the course of a week or so, through a few related situations. During these situations, He kept impressing
upon me the fact that I shine for Him. I
think He is doing that because I really don’t think I do shine—I see my foibles
and faults. He keeps attempting to show
me that He sees much more than that. So
I began to ponder this strange reality—that I shine for Him and when He sees me,
He sees someone valuable. He began to
show me some truths:
·
Why it’s important to shine for Him and not just
survive each day
·
How to shine for Him, even when facing difficult
trials, and
·
How our trials actually HELP us shine for Him
I think that the reason it’s
important to shine for Him is probably obvious:
in Matthew 5:16 Jesus tells us plainly why it’s important to Him: “Let your light so shine before men, that
they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.” Our entire reason for existing is to draw
people to a relationship with the Lord and to glorify Him with our lives. [No
pressure!]. We are called to shine
whether we feel like it or not, and whether we think we can or not.
We cannot live on the outskirts of
Christianity and expect to shine. We are
too far away from intimacy with Him and it is our deep and transparent relationship
with Him that allows us to shine. This
is probably a spiritual stretch, but as I was reading Numbers 11, a thought
came to me. In Numbers 11, God was angry
with the Israelites (during their time in the desert) because they kept
complaining. Numbers 11:1 says that
because of their complaining, “[…] the
anger of the Lord burned among them, and consumed some in the outskirts of the
camp.” I wondered why only the
Israelites in the outskirts of the camp were killed. Maybe because they were willing to be a
marginal part of Israelite life—they were not willing to fully commit to God’s
plans for them. I could be wrong, but I
believe the application still applies to us. We cannot just go through the motions of
Christianity and expect to grow spiritually or expect to shine for the Lord. It just isn’t possible—it’s like our students
expecting A’s and getting frustrated with us when we don’t GIVE them a A even
though they’ve done absolutely nothing to earn it.
An open, completely transparent
relationship with the Lord is key to allowing ourselves to shine for Him. We cannot refuse God’s usually gentle, loving
correction and pretend we’ve got it all figured out. We cannot expect to be self-reliant and shine. Whether we like to admit it or not, people
see through our façade, and we lose credibility. Instead of shining, we begin to stink of
hypocrisy. We must allow God to purge us
of our sin so we can be clean—nothing dirty can shine brightly. David did have this humility, and grew by
leaps and bounds spiritually for several years.
His humility is so touching to me in Psalm 51:7: “Purge
me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me and I shall be whiter than snow.” And verse 10: “Create in me a clean heart, O
God, … .” Sometimes I greatly fear
saying that prayer—I’m so scared of the ugly reality check and painful pruning awaiting
me. But David’s desire for purity was
greater than his pride. What a lesson
for me to learn. I need to desire purity
over my foolish pride. I believe deep
humility and a desire for purity is a very critical first step in beginning to
shine for the Lord.
I began to ask the Lord to show me
practical, powerful, simple things we can do to position ourselves to shine for
Him. It seemed like such an abstract
quality; I really didn’t think there are any actual intentional things we can
do to help ourselves shine. But He did
give me some very practical advice. One
way to help ourselves shine is to soak up His presence continually. In verses 10-12 of Psalm 51, David asks God, “… renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me away from Your presence, and
do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of Your salvation …” I believe that David spent countless hours
consistently soaking up God’s presence and allowing the Holy Spirit to
penetrate his soul. The more time he
spent in intimacy with God, the more he began to reflect God in his life. I strongly believe that is one of the reasons
he was so popular—he spent so much time with the Lord that people sensed the
Lord’s presence when they were with him and they (probably unbeknownst to them)
were drawn to it. They just liked being
in his presence because it felt good. We
can be like that, too. We, too, must
saturate ourselves with His Word and His presence daily.
Then I began to ask God if it’s
possible to shine when we are going through a very difficult trial. Honestly, I was hoping He would confirm to me
that it’s not possible to shine during a very serious trial. Alas, that is not the answer I received. On the contrary, He quelled that idea
quickly. His response came in a very unique
and unexpected way. In my Wednesday
night ministry, we sang a song through which God laid it all out for me very
clearly—it is in our deepest trials that He is molding us to shine for Him the
most. *sigh* As I begin to relate what He showed me, you
may figure out the song He used to answer my question. He began to show me how diamonds are
made. Diamonds are the result of a
chemical change that takes place deep in the earth (about 100 miles below the
surface of the earth). Because of
intense pressure (725,000 pounds per square inch) and extremely high
temperatures (over 2000° F), carbon atoms bond together to form crystals. Each carbon atom bonds with four other carbon
atoms, which is why diamonds are the world’s strongest substance. The bonded crystals must rise quickly from
100 miles below the surface (within a period of 12-24 hours) in order to cool
as diamonds. They must then be extracted
from volcanic rock. Our spiritual growth
and transformation must take place deep in our soul in order to be visible to
others from the outside. The intense
pressure and fiery trials we experience are what shape us into the diamonds we
are becoming, except that in our case the transformation lasts an entire
lifetime. In the same way that a
diamond’s beauty and popularity comes from its unique ability to reflect light,
we also shine solely because we reflect His light to those around us, because
the Bible says “God is light.” (I Jn. 1:5)
That takes care of the depth, pressure, and heat of diamond creation,
which leaves us to discover how the resulting strength of the diamond applies
to us as well: it is definitely true
that each trial we overcome makes us even stronger than we were before we faced it.
How do we still shine during a
fiery trial? God told me that we must
CHOOSE to focus on our many blessings and His goodness. There is no trial we face that can erase all
of God’s past blessings and miracles. We
focus on His goodness in the past and in the present. We focus on His promises for our future. David, in Psalm 51:8 says, “Make me hear joy and gladness, that
the bones You have broken may rejoice.” David
understood the importance of seeing God’s goodness and blessings no matter what
he was facing. Phil. 4:8 is very
clear: “… whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things
are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things
are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate
on these things.” It is truly very
difficult to do, but we must actively
choose—every day (and sometimes several times during the day)—to
rejoice despite our circumstances. Ps.
51:14-15 says, “ … my tongue shall sing
aloud of Your righteousness. O Lord,
open my lips, and my mouth shall show forth Your praise.” We can praise Him even in our darkest times
because He is for us, and the victory is guaranteed. In fact, I believe that one-on-one praise
time is an important element of our intimacy with Him. I feel certain that David would agree. He spent countless hours writing powerful,
very intimate songs to his King. He did
that because it kept him focused on God and not his problems.
So, beloved, whether you agree or
not, whether you see it or not, you do
shine for Him, and when He looks down from heaven, He smiles at His unique
“diamond in the rough.” You are slowly
but surely being molded into the polished and perfected product that He has in mind.
God would say, “Look at yourself through My eyes, and you will see that you are
extraordinary.” Maybe there are some
things you can do to help yourself to shine more for Him:
·
Spend more time saturating your soul with His
presence, through meditating on His Word, through time spent in deep prayer,
quiet meditation focusing on whatever He wants to show you, and worship time.
·
Focus on your blessings when all you see is your
trial
·
Focus on the fact that He is also working to
help those “difficult-to-love” people in your life to shine as well
Maybe spend some of your quiet time this week
asking God to show you specifically what you
can do to reflect more of His glory in your life.
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