Christians are called lights. But how brightly do we shine? Perhaps our light becomes dim, and we don’t know it. Maybe we need some maintenance!
This was graphically illustrated to me at work when the maintenance men cleaned several high intensity lights and replaced the bulbs. Although still working, their light was hardly to be compared with their former brilliance. After the cleaning, it was almost as if we had been working in the dark before!
The electric power behind those lights had not changed. It flowed with the same voltage and current before and after the maintenance, nor did the fixture change. So it is in our lives even though our body remains as long as we live, our “bulb” may grow dim, though the Power Source changes not. We need to clean the lens and keep the bulb clean. Sometimes we need to make drastic changes in our lives (change the bulb, so to speak) so that our testimony really illuminates the world around.
I cannot list all the things that dim our lights—there are far too many of them, and the weight of sin that darkens our lives is different for each. What shackles my life may not affect another believer at all. But each knows what they are. We all need to seek the Lord’s help and strength to overcome them. The same Source that powers our light of testimony has given us the way and means to keep it clean His Word and the Holy Spirit to illuminate its pages.
“Let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider Him that endured such contradiction of sinners against Himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds” (Heb. 12:1313And make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way; but let it rather be healed. (Hebrews 12:13)).
A. Scharf