"You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven." Matthew 5:14-16
Today in my morning devotion time I opened the Word and started to read it like any other book. I saw the words, but not with my heart, with my eyes and my mind. I find that is the danger for me and reading plans. I am task oriented, I have an agenda, I have a list. I like to check things off, and this was one more thing I was going to check off "my list for the day." Then the Spirit nudged me......like He so often has to do. I should have known I could not get away with that.
I went back and I prayed for the Spirit to open my heart to those most precious words of His and I read again. This time I felt what I was reading. Sometimes I lose touch. I think, "Oh, I have read these passages so many times, I know this." And God says, "No, you don't, read it again." He is so very patient with me.
I waited for a passage to speak to me, and it didn't take long. This from Matthew 5:22. "But anyone who says, 'You fool!' will be in danger of the fire of hell." Wow! I immediately thought of my daily commutes on the freeway. There is certainly no lack of fools in our world today. Think of the current ledger of politicians running for office and see if a modern day equivalent of "Thou fool" doesn't float right to the surface of your tongue. If it didn't you are a much better person than I! In fact, I was talking to my Mom just last night about "one of those fools" I didn't care for who is running for a seat in the senate.
It is so easy to get caught up in negative talk and commiserate about how bad things are in our world today, but there is still much that is good in it. The world needs our words of light. When we speak words of light into our world, it pushes the powers of hell back and brings the Kingdom of Heaven in. Conversely, when I call someone a fool, a bit of the darkness of hell flows into me. I can feel it.
I think sometimes we don't speak more positively to the people around us because we don't want to be accused of wearing rose colored glasses, or not being in touch with reality, or being a "Pollyanna." But this is not the case, we know exactly how bad things are, and just how bad they are going to get. We have read the book of Revelation!
So speak the words of light today.......we have them straight from God's Word! One of the best ways to speak light in the darkness is to count out our multitude of blessings. Today I continue the count with Ann and many others......open windows after a long hot desert summer, fresh baked honey cookies, a few surviving petunias after the bunnies got done with them, outdoor conversation around the fire, a God who loves me more than I can imagine in spite of all my failings, flannel shirts, a little niece who went to school one more day, wind chimes accompanied by a cool breeze, no more hum of the air-conditioning, holidays that are coming, and a peaceful weekend after a difficult week! #507-516
I threw away a possible blog post. Why? Because I didn't like the way I felt after reading it. What was my motivation? How is this going to help? So I trashed it, tore it into little pieces as much as it is possible on a wordpress blog. Totally understand where you are coming from.
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