Like the sunlight upon a dark world, Jesus shines new hope on each day.
I’m going to be honest; this week has been a week. And it seemed everybody I talked too, felt the same way. It was like there was something in the air. On top of life in general, I struggled to grab a hold of a concrete idea to write about and more than once attempted to get a post going with no real luck. I hate these dry spells but they highlight my dependence on God all the more. I know that I am nothing without Him. Every thought, every word, and every sentence…the very talent of writing…it all comes from Him. I thought about that phrase deeper and I liked it—it all comes from Him. But it was something my head had to convey to my heart.
I was driving to the second doctor’s appointment I had this week at two different places (I'm not a fan of doctors) when I hit a place on the interstate where you round the curve and all you see when you look up is mountains. Every time I notice it, which is rare, I wonder how I could have missed it all the other times. It’s green and luscious. It stretches across the whole area, decorating the skyline and creating a beautiful view. I’m not sure exactly what it is about this particular spot but it has spoken to me on more than one occasion.
This week it reminded me that even when I can’t see it, it is there. And even when I can’t see God, so is He. Sometimes when we are going along life’s roads we have to choose to look up. After all, a better view may be found from a different position. When we allow God to carry us and we look to Him, we begin to notice the beauty around us.
There is a C.S. Lewis quote that I cannot shake from my heart. Quite simply—I love it! It says:
I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen; not only because I see it, but because by it, I see everything else.
Take a minute to let that quote soak in. What a challenge. What an idea. It offers a choice really—it dares you to make following Christ the standard by which your whole life follows. Christianity isn't about parts of your life or parts of the Bible, it involves everything. But the question is:
Do you see everything by Christ? Or are you stumbling around in the dark?
Matthew 5:14 says, ""You are the light of the world—like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden." Christ calls us to shine before men, but we must first plug into the light source before we ourselves can add light to the darkness. Like that mountaintop view I noticed, we can add beauty and depth but only if we began to change our perspective. Only when we start to see everything in our life by Christ. After all, it all comes from Him. And like the sunlight upon a dark world, Jesus shines new hope on each day.
I have been a follower of Jesus for a long time, since I was very young, but I only recently began to fully comprehended the benefits that come with accepting Jesus. The more time you spend with Him, the more you see. I wrote this in my quiet time a couple of weeks ago:
Matthew 5:14 says, ""You are the light of the world—like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden." Christ calls us to shine before men, but we must first plug into the light source before we ourselves can add light to the darkness. Like that mountaintop view I noticed, we can add beauty and depth but only if we began to change our perspective. Only when we start to see everything in our life by Christ. After all, it all comes from Him. And like the sunlight upon a dark world, Jesus shines new hope on each day.
I have been a follower of Jesus for a long time, since I was very young, but I only recently began to fully comprehended the benefits that come with accepting Jesus. The more time you spend with Him, the more you see. I wrote this in my quiet time a couple of weeks ago:
I am marveled over the fact that as a Child of God I have benefits that I’m not even using. God offers endless gifts of peace, freedom, life, etc and a lot of times I don’t even tap into those. God didn’t send His Son to die for me so I could be caught up in worry, fear, comparison or insecurity. He came so that I could have HOPE, so that I could walk in freedom. He came to break down the walls and offer a full life. And I need to start fully accepting, embracing and walking in that.
I want to encourage you, no matter what you are facing or what your week brings, to grab hold of the things Jesus is offering. See everything by Him. Lift your eyes to the One who is walking right beside you. You just might start to see mountains instead of valleys.
I want to encourage you, no matter what you are facing or what your week brings, to grab hold of the things Jesus is offering. See everything by Him. Lift your eyes to the One who is walking right beside you. You just might start to see mountains instead of valleys.
-Only Hope
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