ARISE, SHINE
Are you sick and tired of living an uninspired life? Of groping along the wall of life like a blind man? Of stumbling through life instead of purposefully moving through life to attain your goals? This was the situation of the Israelites when the prophet Isaiah confronts them.
Their feet rush into sin; they are swift to shed innocent blood. They pursue evil schemes; acts of violence mark their ways. The way of peace they do not know; there is no justice in their paths……………..Like the blind we grope along the wall,feeling our way like people without eyes. At midday we stumble as if it were twilight; among the strong, we are like the dead. We all growl like bears; we moan mournfully like doves. (Isaiah 59:7-11)
A suboptimal life, unable to realize the potential and bound by the chains of sin, stumbling and moaning pitiably through life. That’s hardly the legacy a person wishes to leave behind. And worse, man finds himself in the quandary of being unable to overcome the chains of sin, which Isaiah identifies as the sole reason for their misery. When man cannot find a solution, God intervenes and He accomplishes salvation from sin and freedom through the work of Jesus on the cross.
The Lord looked and was displeased that there was no justice. He saw that there was no one, he was appalled that there was no one to intervene; so his own arm achieved salvation for him, and his own righteousness sustained him. (Isaiah 59:16,17)
Today, a believer finds himself with the same predicament, albeit has a solution- that of responding to the light of Christ. Isaiah continues,
“Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord rises upon you. See, darkness covers the earth and thick darkness is over the peoples, but the Lord rises upon you and his glory appears over you. Nations will come to your light,and kings to the brightness of your dawn. (Isaiah 60:1-3)
The light has already come through Jesus, and the presence of the Lord rises over us beckoning us to a life of fulfilment and joy. It is for us to respond to that light by rising up and shining forth the illumination of God. Practically, that means to live a life of obedience and submission to God, aligning oneself with the will of God. In doing so, God’s light becomes an avenue to dispel the darkness that envelops the world and bring the nations to the light and life of God.
