Thanks for checking out the blog today! Our scripture is from the Old Testament prophet Isaiah! Isaiah 60 “Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord rises upon you. 2 See, darkness covers the earth and thick darkness is over the peoples, but the Lord rises upon you and his glory appears over you. 3 Nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn.
There is a great deal of hope in this passage. Words of hope lift me. I notice the tenses of the verbs. Arise and Shine are present tense command verbs. Do it now! The light has (past tense) already come. The Lord rises (present tense continuing action) upon you. The nations will (future) come to your light.
The hope I see is that I get to arise and shine this morning because God's light has already come to me - its a done deal. And as I do that by faith God's presence and reality will rise up and show forth in my life so that people are drawn to Him through me. Sometimes I don't exactly feel like arising and shining! Sometimes I feel like hiding, procrastinating or building up walls of anger, control or aloofness. It takes no faith to do that.
The hope I am seeing in this word from God today is that God's Light has already come. I don't bring Him to the situation I meet Him there. I can step out in faith and Arise and Shine because He has already come and will meet me in those difficult or challenging situations I want to hide from or am angry about or am afraid of. As I step into my day trusting that His light is leading me and preparing the way for me then each one of those encounters become opportunity for His glory to rise and be seen by people.
This might seem a little confusing - but that is the way my mind works sometimes. I think there is something rich here. I get to walk by faith that His Light has come so I can afford to Arise and Shine and then see what He does in every situation.
Enjoy this scripture! How is God bringing light into your life through these words?
delton