“You are the light of the world. A city 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 men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.”
Matthew 5: 14 – 16
How do you respond when someone gives you a compliment? If someone thanks you for a job well done, do you immediately begin to thank everyone else who made it possible? If you are praised for a certain quality of your looks or personality, do you respond by turning your attention to someone or something else to give them credit? The truth of the matter is that many of us have a difficult time with praise and compliments. We don’t want to appear arrogant to those around us so we often tend to shrug off any recognition of our talents or appearance or effort. We also don’t people to get the idea that we think more highly of ourselves than we ought to. It is a very difficult line to walk between self-confidence and arrogance. The challenge becomes getting to the place where we can accept praise and compliments and still remain grounded and humble.
The passage above will be our focus for the devotions throughout this year. As we look at Matthew 5: 14 – 16, we realize that the beginning of the verse is a huge compliment from Christ to us, his disciples. He is calling US the light of the world. Jesus was saying, not only to Peter and James and John, but to each of us as well that we have a very important role to play in the spread of his message to the world. We are the vessel that God has chosen to use to shine the light of Christ to everyone. God believes in us, His creation, that much. What a compliment! What an honor and privilege that has been bestowed upon us! We are God’s messengers of Light in a world of darkness.
The question I ask again is, How do you respond when someone give you a compliment? In this case, it is God who is saying to us personally, “I believe in you so much that you are going to take my message to everyone in need?” How do we respond to God’s confidence and trust in us? Do we shrug it off or do we thank God humbly for believing in us? Do we try to deflect the compliment from God and move on to something else or do we take seriously the honor that has been bestowed upon us as followers of Christ? We have a choice. We can deny the compliment and continue on with our lives as if nothing was ever said or we can honor God’s trust in us by using our gifts and shining the God-given Light upon everyone we come in contact with each day. It is not arrogant to realize that we are precious to the God of the Universe. It is the truth. Our choice is whether or not we choice to accept the compliment from our God.
In Christ’s Love,
Ray Luther