30 January 2025 www.goodnewsfl.org Good news • South Florida Edition YOU ASK WHY Let that Light of Yours Shine! “Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:16). We tend to think of it as a children’s song – and if you or your kids grew up in church, you are probably very familiar with it: “This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine. Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine.” I’d like to encourage you to embrace this as your resolution for 2025 and beyond. May we be so filled with the light of Christ that He shines in our eyes, warms our voices, and manifests Himself in our love and good works. People who encounter us in the supermarket or the pharmacy or the drycleaners — even those who encounter us on the road during rush hour — should see Christ’s love and holiness in us. The great prince of preachers, Charles Spurgeon, said it far more elegantly than I ever will: “Be thou ever one of those whose manners are Christian, whose speech is like the Nazarene, whose conduct and conversation are so redolent of heaven, that all who see you may know that you are the Savior’s, recognizing in you His features of love and His countenance of holiness. “ I had to look up the word redolent that Mr. Spurgeon used; it means “to exude a fragrance,” which immediately calls to mind 2 Corinthians 2:14-16 – “Thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of him. For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. To the one we are the smell of death; to the other, the fragrance of life. And who is equal to such a task?” Who is equal to such a task? I must confess, I have asked the Lord that question on several occasions. Who is equal to such a task? Certainly not Tommy Boland! Oh, I get it right sometimes; I may even get it right more than I get it wrong. But is the person standing in line behind me at the market inhaling the sweet aroma of Christ? Or does he recoil from the sour stench of a tense, irritable man who has more to do than there are hours in the day? Is the light of Christ consistently shining in my eyes? Is He shining in yours? I spend hours counselling with couples and individuals. I long ago lost count of how many times someone has said, “You don’t understand how badly I’m struggling.” (They seem to believe I don’t have struggles of my own.) “If you only knew how I’m failing in my _______.” Here you can fill in the blank: relationships, finances, thought life, parenting, etc. These disheartened believers are convinced that they are scarcely worthy to be called “Christian” because of their sins and failures. There’s a wonderful scene in The Chosen, in which the Mary Magdalene character backslides and returns to her old, sinful life. All that is fiction, but her words to the Lord when she repents are as real as your next breath: “I owe You everything,” Mary tearfully confesses. “But I don’t think I can do it. I just can’t live up to it.” And the answer from “Jesus,” portrayed so beautifully by Jonathan Roumie, is every bit as real: “That’s true. You can’t. But you don’t have to!” How do I live up to what God has done for me? How can I let His light shine? I can’t; but I don’t have to! “For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ” (2 Corinthians 4:6). The light Jesus told us to let shine before men is not a light we generate within ourselves; God, who spoke the blazing furnace that is the sun into existence, also spoke new life — new light — into our hearts. “His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires” (2 Peter 1:3-4). Divine power within Christian, the same divine power that raised Jesus from the dead is living inside us! We don’t have to grit our teeth and grimly attempt to resist the temptations tossed at us by the world, the flesh and the devil. No, we trust that the promises of God are really true and we live in accordance with them. “Though you have not seen [Jesus],” Peter wrote, “you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy” (1 Peter 1:8). I resolve this year to let my light shine before men because it is not actually “my” light, but the light of Jesus Christ, who loved me enough to die for me and then sent His Spirit to live in me and fill me with His power and His joy. I resolve this year that I will trust God’s promise that He has made it possible for me to participate in the very nature of Christ and show forth His love and His light in all my interactions with others. I resolve this year to hold fast to our Lord’s promise that “If you are filled with light, with no dark corners, then your whole life will be radiant, as though a floodlight were filling you with light” (Luke 11:36 NLT). I want to be radiant — and redolent — in 2025. This Holy Spirit light of mine . . . I’m gonna let it shine. And I pray you will too! This is the Gospel. This is grace for your race. NEVER FORGET THAT . . . AMEN! Dr. Tommy Boland is senior pastor of Cross Community Church in Deerfield Beach (www.thecrosscc.org). He blogs regularly at tommyboland.com. - Dr. Tommy Boland - Pastor, Cross Community Church
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