Let Your Light Shine Day 5
I sought the LORD, and he answered me
delivered me from all my fears. Look to Him and be radiant.” Psalm 34:5-6
We have seen from other Psalms and Bible verses that God is Light. He is the source of all energy on the planet. St. Paul said in the Acts that, in God “we live and move and have our being” (17:28), just like every day we live because the sun lights and warms our planet.
A mirror is not the light, nor is the mirror the image one sees in it. The mirror reflects the light or the image that comes in front of its surface. When we look to God, we can reflect His radiance, just like a mirror. What would happen in my life if I tried to reflect the light of God?
The psalmist says, “I sought the LORD, and he answered me, delivered me from all my fears.” By looking for God, he was able to be delivered from fear. What do we see when we look at God? We see His divine nature. There are so many amazing images that the Bible uses to describe the nature of God. Here are just a few:
“I AM, that I AM”
Love
Light
Wonderful Counselor
Prince of Peace
Strong One (Elohim)
Father
By meditating on the divine nature of God, we come to understand it more fully. When we look at God, just as we look in a mirror, we can begin to reflect His radiance. By truly understanding and embracing the nature of God, we can experience that divinity in us, and radiate out a portion of his goodness to the world around us. The radiance of God can deliver us from fear.
What does that look like practically? It means we actively look for the good and divine in life. The psalmist says, “I sought the Lord.” Said another way, he actively went out looking for light, love, peace, strength, all of which are the nature of God. This does not mean we hide our head in the sand, and pretend there is nothing going wrong in our lives. It means, when we see darkness, we recognize that light must also be present somewhere, and we look for it. When we see a fearful situation, we know that on the other side of that fear, there is also a reason for hope, or peace. God does not deny the bad in life, his nature delivers us through it.
I am going to use the words of the psalm today to remind me to look for the divine nature of God all around me. I will “look to him and be radiant”. Today, I hope that you will join me in praying a portion of the Prayer of St. Francis:
“Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love
Where there is injury, pardon
Where there is doubt, faith
Where there is despair, hope
Where there is darkness, light
And where there is sadness, joy. Amen”