Day 9: The Light

“And he shall bring forth thy righteousness as the LIGHT, and thy judgment as the noonday.” Psalm 37:6

What is light? If I were to define it without looking up the definition, I would define it as the absence of darkness. For where there is light, there is no darkness. Am I correct? If we were to go with this definition, where can we find light … spiritual light? Well, John tells us in I John 1:5, “that God is LIGHT, and in him is no darkness at all.”

If we turned to Acts 26, we would see the story of Saul on the road to Damascus. What happened that day? A bright light shone forth, did it not? It tells us in verse 13, that it was midday, yet a light brighter than the midday sun, a light that shone from heaven shone down on Saul and those with him. God told Saul that He had a new purpose (verse 16) for him from that day forward. Saul was now to be a witness and a minister to others about that heavenly light in whom “is no darkness at all.” His witness would “open their eyes, and … turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of  Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins …” (verse 18).

Philip Bliss wrote a hymn in the mid 1800’s that we still sing today from our hymnals. It is entitled, The Light of the World is Jesus. I believe that David is referring to the true Light of the world … the Lord Jesus Christ. Yet, I believe too that David is wanting us to realize that we as Christians have a responsibility also to shed forth that true Light.

Can you see David now musing about that true Light? Here are two things that I believe he realized about that Light:

· He is the Only Light that brings salvation as we see in John 14:6 “Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”

· His Light is a pure light … a sinless Light … as we see in II Corinthians 5:21 “For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.”

Notice in the latter part of II Corinthians 5:21 the purpose why God had His Only Son … His sinless Son … to be made sin for us … “that WE might be made the RIGHTEOUSNESS of God in him.” Did you catch the word righteousness here? Now, look back to the beginning of our verse today in Psalm 37. What does it say? “And he shall bring forth THY RIGHTEOUSNESS as the LIGHT …” Whose righteousness? Ours … yours and mine!

Let me try to bring all of this together. The reason Christ’s light shines so brightly in a world of darkness and sin is because of His RIGHTEOUSNESS! He not only is righteous (morally right), but He is holy (dedicated to God)! Christ came as an example, did He not? He wanted us to follow in His footsteps. He knew that His days on earth were numbered and so He left His footprints for us to follow. He wanted His righteousness to shine through your life and my life to a lost and dying world. How is your light, my friend? Has it become dull with apathy, criticism, judgment, jealousy, unfaithful, unholy, selfishness, or pride? Does the wick need to be trimmed with the help of the Holy Spirit? Does your light plead with the darkness to “come to the light, ‘tis shining for thee?” It should, my friend! It should!