Remember the famous childhood song “This Little Light of Mine”? We used to play it on repeat and sing it at the top of our lungs, unmindfully, without a care in the world. We were proud of our light and refused to let anything take it away, but as the years went by and we began to experience the hardships of life, the lyrics were washed from our memories and the tune of hope left our hearts.
"The Light of the World stepped down into my darkness and restored my hope, and He will restore yours too"
The light that we were delighted to have and vowed to protect isn’t a light bulb, a candle, or a fire. The light is hope. Which leads me to ask the question, why did we stop singing? What did you allow to take your light away? What made your hope burn out? For some of you it was your parents’ divorce, or maybe it was the loss of someone close to you. For others, losing your job, or feeling abandoned by someone that you thought would be in your life forever. I think a lot of us put our light out, when God doesn’t answer a prayer in that moment we desperately needed Him to. When I let my light stop shining it didn’t go out immediately; I slowly dimmed it until it barely flickered. I allowed unanswered prayers, disappointments, unhealthy relationships, injuries, and failures to gradually dim my light. I was hanging on by a small thread of hope, and was on the verge of giving up on life and even on God. As the last flicker of my light was finally about to go out, the Light of the World stepped down into my darkness and restored my hope, and He will restore yours too.
"His light will never die, and His hope will never burn out."
Incase you don’t know who the Light of the World is, I’ll be happy to tell you that it’s Jesus! 1 John 1:15 says, “God is light; in Him there is no darkness at all”. A God that is purely light has the ability to break up all of the darkness in you, and all you have to do is have faith that He will. Imagine a pitch-black room, so dark you can’t even see your hand in front of you. Now imagine turning on just one light in that room. As soon as the light turns on, all the darkness around it immediately disappears. That’s how God works; no matter how much darkness is in us, His radiance will make the darkness flee. His light will never die and His hope will never burn out, so when you feel as if you’re running low on hope call on the Light of the world and He will replenish you’re soul.
"He gave us the right to illuminate the dark shadows of life with hope."
The third verse in the Bible is, “And God said, "Let there be light", and there was light.” Can we take a moment to ponder how significant that is? Our God is so powerful that with only four words, He separated the light from the darkness. When God said, “Let there be light”, He didn’t just speak light into the universe, He spoke it into us too. God did not give us a spirit of darkness or fear, but a spirit that reflects His power, love, and hope (2 Timothy 1:7). He gave us the right to illuminate the dark shadows of life with hope. It just comes down to a choice. You can choose to hide your light “under a bushel” or you can choose to take a stand for your hope and say “No, I’m gonna let it shine!” It’s your choice to let “Satan blow it out”, with the winds of sorrow, fear, and doubt or you can say “No, I’m gonna let it shine!” When you’re hanging on by a thread of hope, and your light’s on it’s last flicker remember, “The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still” (Exodus 14:14).
"Cry out to Him and allow the brightness of His love to fill you with hope."
Lastly, know that even if you’ve given up on God, He hasn’t given up on you. Cry out to Him and allow the brightness of His love to fill you with hope. His love will give you the power to fight for your light and “Let it shine til Jesus comes.” Matthew 5:14-16, “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven."
