Are You God's Light

Are You God's Light "You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden." Matthew 5:14 This scripture was some advice Jesus was giving to the people of His day from His sermon on the mount. He was telling them to be different from the rest of the world, and let their light shine so others could see that they were different. Many of the so called religious people of His day were worldly, unspiritual, and wanted to display, and publicly parade their religion to impress others, and were dominated by pride, ambition, greed and with only thoughts about themselves. This is still how many so called religious people are today, as they still want to represent themselves as religious, but still have the same impure hearts, and think only about themselves, and how they come across to others. Jesus was trying to impress on us that we cannot make our light shine by sinking to the ways of the world, but that we need to rise above the ways of the world, and make ourselves stand out, as a beacon for others. He wants us to stand out in a good way, as being someone who stands out because of a clean heart and caring attitude about others, and not because of our selfish attitude about ourselves. Only in this way can be we be the salt and light to a decaying and darkened world. Our influence on the people around us depends on how much we are like Jesus, as He loved others more than He loved Himself. We should not want to be the center of attention, and think only about our welfare, but we should make God the center of attention and give Him the credit and glory for everything. I would encourage you to think about how you are influencing people around you. Are you being the influence that will attract them to Jesus, or is your purpose to attract them to yourself? My Daily Devotional Volume Six January 25, 2013 Robert William Brock, Jr.