Why our Christmas tree isn’t the only light to shine this season
By Dean Collins
Since you are reading this or another daily devotional, you are likely the kind of person Paul addresses in Philippians. You are a person who at some point realized that God so loved the world that he sent his Son, Jesus, to redeem it and everyone in it. And accepting this truth, believing this truth, and confessing this truth changed you forever. In fact it brought you to a place of obedience that resulted in a life no longer lived simply for yourself and your desires but rather for God and his desires.
In the early verses of Philippians 2, Paul poetically and perfectly described the glorious sacrifice of our suffering Savior. He encourages us, as he told the Philippian church, to keep walking and working out our faith and salvation. This doesn’t have anything to do with earning salvation but everything to do with demonstrating that God’s transformational work has occurred in us and therefore we look and act differently than the crooked and dark world that is our temporary residence.
We look and act differently than the crooked and dark world that is our temporary residence.
You need only look around in your community, our world, in the streaming stories we watch on our devices, or in the local and international news to see there is always another example of deception, hatred, and desperation at play. Whatever your address, somewhere nearby there is trouble, brokenness, poverty, and lost people. And as redeemed of God we are to do the work of God in these places. We work not to earn God’s favor but to demonstrate God’s love. We work out our salvation in gratitude and awe that God has saved us and that he has equipped and trusted us to be his representatives and change agents.
The light comes on!
When we work as God’s own, using the gifts and grace of God in everything we do, suddenly the light comes on. It reveals another person who needs Jesus and also shows that person a path out of the darkness. With joy and compassion we demonstrate how we used to be one thing but God has changed everything in us. He can and will do the same in them.
If, as people of God we continue to complain about each other and argue with each other about how we are to represent God, that will only repel those who see the discord. Our actions will interrupt the good news of God from being seen and experienced. As Kingdom people, we are to be shining examples of lives that have been changed by God. And we can only shine when we are determined to hold tight and hold close both the truth we have learned and the love we’ve received from Jesus.
Maybe this Christmas season, in addition to lighting the Christmas tree, we can let the light of Jesus be fully visible in us. Christ shining in us might just be the light that allows someone to find their way home to God.
Your time with God’s Word
Philippians 2:12-16; Luke 2:9-11; John 1:9-10; 1 John 1:5-7 ESV
Photo by Jonathan Borba from Pexels
