This week’s message is simple, yet critical, to experiencing lasting peace. The words come from Jesus:
"Your eye is a lamp for your body. A pure eye lets sunshine into your soul. But an evil eye shuts out the light and plunges you into darkness. Make sure that the light you think you have is not really darkness. If you are filled with light, with no dark corners, then your whole life will be radiant, as though a floodlight is shining on you." (Luke 11:34-36 — New Living Translation)
When I read that passage, I wondered if a popular message preached by many of today’s motivational speakers was somehow derived from it. Here is the motivational speaker’s version: “Think positive. Surround yourself with positive people, positive books, etc. The more positive influences you have, the more positive outcomes you’ll see in your life.”
That message is not altogether false, because you can apply it and get some desirable results. It does have severe weaknesses when compared to the words of Jesus, though. Essentially, the motivators are talking about getting yourself “psyched up” – and keeping yourself “psyched up” – with positivity. The problem is, positivity has no inherent power. It’s just an emotion, or an attitude. And both are as dependable as shifting sand.
In contrast, Jesus is talking about letting Him and His light shine into your body. When we look past all the distractions that exist in our world (and “thinking positive” is one of them) and focus all of our attention on Christ, then His light will permeate our being. If we think of our eyes as windows into our souls, then whatever we point our eyes toward is what we will allow to fill us. What we need to be filled with is the light of Jesus, so we must keep our eyes turned toward Him.
Like a drug programmed to seek and destroy cancer cells in a body, the light of Jesus will root out all the cancers that steal our peace. This is His desire for each of us. He wants to fill everybody with His light, but He won’t come uninvited. It is up to us to let the light in and keep the darkness out.
Here are few practical applications of Jesus’ instructions so you can be filled with His light on a regular basis:
- Read the Bible. If you’re not sure where to start, choose one of the gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke or John. The gospels record the life of Christ, and He is the light. Meditate on His words, even memorizing some verses so you can have His word with you all day long.
- Pray. God speaks to us through the Holy Spirit when we come to Him in prayer. You can pray anywhere, anytime. God is always listening.
- Think about Jesus. Think about His love, mercy, grace, healing, and deliverance. As you let the thought of Him saturate your heart and mind, you will experience His peace, and you will be radiant as He promised.
And for further study of light and darkness based on Jesus’ teachings, you can click here for some Scripture references.
May your whole life be radiant with His light.
