“Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 5:16).
We live, once again in a time where evil is good and good is evil. It has always been so, but now it is announced and celebrated! We see it in our politics, and we see it in the culture around us. Humanity has been here before and it never bodes well.
Paul said this about our Sin: “I am of the flesh, sold into slavery under sin. I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.… I can will what is right, but I cannot do it. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do” (Rom 7:14–15, 19).
So we do and will sin. The only way that is paused is through the Person of the Holy Spirit and Christ Jesus. A daily relationship with prayer and scripture reading.
Galatians 5:19-21 Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
This is not OUR world to control and manipulate. We act like it is. This is God’s world.
The powers and the principalities are both spiritual (i.e. Satan and demons) and worldly (i.e. people who align with evil). God knows your thoughts and actions, your sins mental and overt. Satan and his Demons are keen observers of human nature. The bible tells us they can project sinful suggestions into our mind. They can manipulate the weather and indwell and possess people and animals among other things.
So your life is not in a bubble.
There is a great upheaval now in the world and in our culture. God uses pandemics to change human history and behavior. He topples governments, he lifts leaders and takes others down.
When we have a personal relationship with Christ, when we name our sins (1 John 1:9) when we pray and talk to God, we separate ourselves from the world, the flesh, and the Devil.
Will you today attempt to take on life and the world under your own strength? It has not worked in the past. Stop and be reflective. Christ is watching and waiting for you to talk to him.
We are salt and light, we let our light shine when we have a relationship with God. People will see that you have a light about you.
Romans 5: 1-21 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us..
Let Your Light Shine!