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How The Light From Our House Affects

by Jerry Ousley  
5/25/2018 / Christian Living

            Some years ago I was a little late in getting home.  It was nearly dark out when I turned the corner on our street.  Just then I saw something that made me decide to always make sure the curtains were shut when the evening came because as I rounded the corner (our house is the second one when turning the corner) I could see our living room plainly and Deb was sitting there on the couch.  It let me know that when the lights are on in the evening and the curtains are open anyone passing by could plainly see anything that was going on in our living room.  Not that there was any “hanky-panky” or anything like that; no it was just the fact that our privacy was being invaded.  From that day forth when the evening was approaching and the living room lights were on we made sure the curtains were shut.

 

            However, when it comes to the spiritual house we are building the complete opposite is true.  Somehow we find it very uncomfortable to let the light shine forth from our spiritual house.  It makes us feel like a spectacle.  We feel vulnerable and exposed and our natural reaction is to hide.  We want to put up fences and curtains so as to conceal ourselves.  That is our natural reaction.

 

            But Jesus tells us that we are to go against our natural reaction.  Instead of hiding our light we are to purposely expose it.  We are to situate ourselves as a city on a hill.  We are to keep from hiding under the basket and let our light shine for all to see.

 

            But we must be careful because in doing that we not only expose the light of the Holy Spirit within us but we may also expose some undesirable things too.  Just as letting the lights in our home flood out in the evening exposing possibly a cluttered house, the light streaming from our lives may let others see the clutter that can be inside us.

 

            Suddenly it becomes extremely important that we begin to clean the clutter and rid our house of all those things that present a bad witness.  We sometimes feel that when we become a Christian that we automatically become perfect overnight.  We think that it is a shameful thing to let others see our imperfections.  We must be quick to confess our imperfections and the sin that needs to be weeded out of us.  We are not perfect just because our soul has been made perfect.  So we do need to be working on cleaning the clutter in our spiritual house but at the same time allowing others to see that we are human too also becomes a part of our witness.

 

            You see we are sanctified progressively by growing in grace.  Every day of our life is another chance to get rid of yet another imperfection.  We are constantly striving to become like Jesus.  Unlike Him we were not born into perfection.  We were born into a sin-filled world.  We are in need of a Savior immediately.  Then, once we come to Christ, each day is a day spent growing in Him. 

 

            We may think that our imperfect life cannot be a witness for Jesus.  But it can.  You see we must spend each day in attempt to get closer to Him.  But by allowing our imperfections to be seen as well as the Holy Spirit in our lives people know that we are real.  We are just like them and that gives them hope that they too can be like Jesus.  When we attempt to hide our imperfections and make it look as if we are perfect then we make the gift of salvation seem unattainable to our peers.  If they believe that they must become perfect immediately, knowing the sin in their lives makes living for Christ impossible.  But when they know that we are all imperfect people walking daily to serve a perfect Lord then that is something that anyone can do if they will only believe.

 

            So that’s our job.  We build our house by coming to Christ.  We make sure we have a good foundation on the Rock (Jesus).  We work on ridding our house of pests and termites that can destroy it.  And finally we fill it with light and allow that light to spill out as a witness to others.  Come on, you can do it.  I know you can.

Jerry D. Ousley is the author of ?Soul Challenge?, ?Soul Journey?, ?Ordeal?, ?The Spirit Bread Daily Devotional and his first novel ?The Shoe Tree.? Visit our website at spiritbread.com to download these and more completely free of charge.

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