Enjoy this beautiful guest post by Megan from the Not So Perfect blog!

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It’s that time of the year where the months are turning colder and the days are getting shorter. Unlike the summer, now when I get out of school, the sky is darker and the sun is beginning to set, leaving a beautiful golden light streaming through the trees, painting long shadows on the ground, and turning the sky pretty shades of pink and orange. For me, this is a daily reminder of the beauty of nature.

We live in a beautiful world, there is no doubt about it. However, sometimes it seems like everywhere we look, there is suffering and destruction and disaster. The world is aching from the pain of pandemic, conflict, and turmoil. Often, and even more so at this time, our world can seem dark. Filled with evil and sin and suffering – all the things that God never intended for it to be. It seems almost too easy to grow used to this darkness – our eyes become accustomed to it and our hearts become hardened. We become too used to the darkness all around us. But this should not be, my friends!
You see, as Christians, followers of Jesus, we are to be like lights – lights in the darkness. As Peter writes, “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light” (1 Peter 2:9). My friends, we are called out of the darkness to live like Jesus.

1 Peter 2:9 is all about how we have been set apart as God’s people. Peter distinguishes between what we once were and what we now are. In fact, the next verse tells us that before we were called into the light, we were not a people, but now we are God’s people – a “holy nation”… a specific group of people whom God has taken from what we once were in the darkness and brought into His wonderful light.

Therefore, as Christians, we are called to live in this light and to reflect it in our own lives. We need to live our lives in such a way that people will look at us and see we are different… not because of anything we could do but because of what Jesus has done in us. We need to be lights in the darkness of the world, glorifying God in all we do and sharing the hope that we have in Him.

How do we be a light?

So, knowing that we are set apart by God and called to shine like lights as followers of Jesus, where do we begin? James 2:17 says, “In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by deeds, is dead.” Now, don’t get me wrong – as Christians, we know that we are saved by grace, and not by any good works we might do. But, as James tells us, a faith that doesn’t impact the way we live is no faith at all.

This is how we shine like lights. The things we do and the words we speak are the overflow of our heart – the outworking of our faith. For example, the way we treat other people, how we vocalize our opinions, how we respond when things don’t go our way, our attitudes towards certain situations or circumstances… how we apologize… are all ways we can live out our faith, and shine like lights while doing so.It’s as we do these things and as we live out our faith through deeds, that we are living out the light we have been called into. And as we do this, God is then at work in our everyday lives… in the people we come across and the situations we deal with.

To wrap it up…

All of this is a bit like what Paul says in Philippians 2:14-15. He says, “Do everything without grumbling or arguing so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation. Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky”. Isn’t this a beautiful image? Paul reminding us, quite simply, that how we act and how we live out our faith is a major part of how we shine our lights. We need to use our light- the light of Jesus in us- to shine bright and illuminate the darkness all around us.

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I hope that you enjoyed this beautiful guest post by Megan! Make sure to check out her blog here!

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