There it was—the true Light (the genuine, perfect, steadfast Light) which, coming into the world, enlightens everyone.
John 1:9
Reflecting Light
Our God is a faithful God, He has never failed us and He never will, fully put your trust in Him like Mary did. Mary as young as she was, Bible scholars said about 14 or 15 years at the time, surrendered and submitted herself and her future to God’s will knowing fully well she will encounter persecution.
Mary said in Luke 1:38, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” We too need to let go of what we may think we want and fully submit every area of our life to God and His word not matter how hard it is and at what cost.
When we first made that choice to surrender to Jesus and be born again that decision came at a cost. The Holy Spirit would open our eyes to see things differently, we may not want to do the same things anymore, go certain places, say certain things and hang out with the same crowd. What we had to let go of, those sacrifices, were made to gain so much more- eternal life with our Heavenly Father.
Sin on the other hand opens the door to the devil to attack us and make our life on this earth miserable and eventually taking away the hope of a life more abundantly here on this earth and the hope of our future in heaven. When you open the door to the devil usually, he’s not going to take a small thing and leave, he’s going to take the whole house.
Sin is like an infectious disease that not only ruins you but hurts others around you. Sin is what separated us from God in the first place which is the reason why Jesus had to come- to reconcile us with our Heavenly Father.
Of course, we all make mistakes, we are not perfect only Jesus is therefore with Him we are perfect and complete. This is why it’s crucial we develop a close and intimate relationship with the Holy Spirit so that He can clearly guide us in what is right. The times we fall short we are to receive our conviction, repent and turn away from our sin completely. All have fallen short for the glory of God and all are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus (Romans 3:23).
The Old Testament clearly showed us by our own works we cannot be clean, righteous and holy, the sacrifices only held up for one year, we clearly needed a savior. For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord (Romans 6:23). On that precious night in Bethlehem we got Him, our Savior, the hope of the world came to restore our relationship with God and make atonement for us. Jesus came to get His family back.
He didn’t come in a grand palace which He rightly deserved but a lowly manger. Jesus came as an example of how we should be. In the kingdom the Bible explains we are to be humble and lowly and in due time God Himself will exalt and lift us up which is exactly what happened to Jesus. God lifted Him up from the dead and seated Him on His right hand in heavenly places (Ephesians 1:20).
Jesus did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many (Matthew 20:28). We too are to serve and love one another with the same expressions of love He came and showed us. When we spend time with Him and in His word, He fills our cups to overflowing so that we can spread that same love to others, but we can’t pour from an empty cup.
This world shows us to focus on ourselves and on self-love but all of that is self-ish, it’s the opposite of what Jesus taught us.
Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these (Mark 12:30-31).
It’s clear in the new commandment He gave us which is twofold: love God and love people. It’s easy to get the first one down but the second one is difficult because people tend to be mean and unkind, but we are commanded to love them anyway. It’s when we are nice and show the love of God to difficult people that we may change a life and make Satan angry. God sees everything, He sees the big things we do and even the little things, rest assured you will get your reward in heaven.
There are many times in my life where I have helped people and they turn around and betrayed me, the immediate fleshly temptation is to not want help others again or curse and gossip about them but that doesn’t glorify God. We have all been hurt by people, but God calls us in Matthew 5:44 to bless our enemies and pray for the ones who persecute us. Yes, this is incredibly hard but the best and good things in life usually tend to be the most difficult, but with God all things are possible (Matthew 19:26).
I pray to God and thank Him for the honor to get to know Him and love Him. If He didn’t come, we would’ve never gotten that opportunity to have a relationship with Him. The most special relationship in my life is the one that I have with Jesus. In that same breath I ask God to help me to help others to bring them to Christ and closer to Christ so they could experience that same loving relationship. My prayer is that you too first, love God, love others and shamelessly and confidently tell others about your hope.
I hope you enjoyed our second installment of “Jesus: The Living Hope of the World: Reflecting Light”. I hope this inspires you to reflect more of the light and hope you have been given that blessed night in Bethlehem when our savior came. Stay tuned for the final installment “Hope and Joy” you don’t want to miss this next installment that will help ignite your hope. Don’t miss it!
