I woke up to the frantic wailing of my alarm clock. I always feel like my alarm grows slightly more panicked every time I press snooze, and after the seventh time that morning, it was on the verge of hysterics. I pressed stop this time, a silent commitment to actually get out of bed. The list of to-do’s running through my mind made my head spin as I sat up. I decided to do laundry first because I had just bought new detergent pods and I couldn’t wait to use them. (Yes, these are the kinds of things I get excited about.) As I tore open the package of detergent pods, I was confronted by a sad clump of sticky, broken pods swimming in moonlight breeze scented soap. I had been betrayed. Not one pod was salvageable and I had to squeeze as much detergent as I could out of the clump to have enough to wash my load of laundry. It took ten minutes of vigorous scrubbing to free my hands from the glaze of purple detergent.

My Monday morning was going just as Monday mornings usually go: difficult and dull. Back in my dorm room, I began clearing my desk for the marathon of homework I was about to embark on and found my daily devotional book in the clutter. It hadn’t been opened in over a month, but I thought ‘why not?’ and turned to the page for the day.

The devotional opened with two words from Isaiah 60:1 that sharply contrasted with my morning to that point:

Arise, shine. (Isaiah 60:1)

The Lord Wants Us to Shine

The rest of that verse continues like this: “Arise, shine! For your light has come! And the glory of the Lord is risen upon you.” I’m sure we’ve all heard the phrase “Rise and shine!” but it isn’t just a motivational phrase. It comes from the words of the Lord himself! He tells us to shine; He wants us to shine from the moment we wake up!

I know I am not alone when I say that I am not a morning person, and most of my mornings are not “rise and shine” type of mornings. My roommate can attest that it takes me a good half hour to even be approachable, much less “shine.” So why would the Lord want us to shine upon waking if it’s so difficult for many of us? It’s simple: He is the light and the light is in us. Unless we suppress it, it’s almost impossible not to shine with the glory of the Lord!

The Lord is the light

Jesus says this in John 8:12: “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” So, if Jesus is the light, what is our role? The answer is in Matthew 5:16: “In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.” Jesus is the light, and we are the means by which that light can shine!

All it takes is a conscious decision to choose Jesus!

The key is to not suppress it. It may be much easier to wake up and focus on the negative and the stressful. However, all it takes is a conscious decision to embrace the light and not shy away from it (John 3:19-28). In other words, all it takes is a conscious decision upon waking up to choose Jesus! This can happen with a simple prayer in the morning, “Lord Jesus, I choose you. Help me walk in the light today!”

When we embrace the light, the Bible says we are in fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus cleanses us from our sins (1 John 1:7).

But, what is shining?

The dictionary defines shine as a verb, “to give forth or glow with light; shed or cast light.” What first drew me back to the Lord when I came to college was the other believers that I met. I immediately noticed how genuinely welcoming and happy they were. They were walking in the light. They were shining. And I realized that I wanted to shine, too.

Then, the weekend after Freshman Connect, where I was baptized, my parents came into town. I spent hours telling them all about my experience of the Lord in the past month and how tangible Christ had been in my life. In retrospect, I can see how I was shining the Lord’s light that night. My mom even quipped “You’re so happy that you talk more now.”

In essence, to shine is to express the Lord’s light. We must shine the light to others that Jesus shines in us every day. We can cover the light, we can hide the light, but it will always be glowing in us, and it is up to us to share this with other people.

How to Shine

As humans, we are composed of three parts: the body, the soul, and the spirit (1 Thes 5:13). All parts are distinct, and all have a purpose. The purpose of the spirit is to be a home for the Lord. Jesus lives in our spirit (Rom 8:10). Therefore, our spirit is constantly glowing and ebbing with the light of the Lord, whether our body and soul follow suit. Our fundamental goal is to make an opening for the light to shine through to our soul and out through our body.

Our spirit is constantly glowing.

If we let the light through into our soul, it will affect our outlook and decisions.

Letting the Lord into our thoughts and emotions is the most difficult part because it entails giving Him our most personal aspects. However, once we do, the change is inevitable and we will “shine like the brightness of the sky above… like the stars forever and ever” (Dan 12:3). Once the light pierces through our soul, the hard part is over.

Now, the light can ricochet off the walls of your being and out through your body. Your body includes your appearance, expressions, and actions. To shine doesn’t necessarily mean being happy and smiling all the time. We can’t have good days every day, and the Lord knows that. It does mean, however, that you are focusing on light even in the darkness. It means being genuinely and perpetually content, regardless of ephemeral emotions, like the brothers and sisters that I met in the club that helped me understand what the light of the Lord really looks like. We can accomplish this by constantly tapping into our spirit. This can be through prayer, singing, or simply having conversations with the Lord throughout the day.

Even on our worst days, when we don’t feel so great, or we’re tired, or tragic things happen to our laundry detergent pods, we can still shine by tuning into our spirit and touching that light. The smallest opportunity that we give the Lord is all He needs to shine through us. The word shine is used in the Bible 32 times; that’s 32 reminders to express our love for the Lord from the moment we wake up!

For God, who said, ‘Light shall shine out of darkness,’ is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. (2 Corinthians 4:6)

The last time “shine” appears in the Bible is in Revelation 21:23: “And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.”

Until the day comes when the Lord’s light overcomes the need of a sun or a moon, it is up to us to shine the light He provides us in the darkness of the world. It is a constant process of choosing the Lord and a daily process of walking in the light. But when it comes down to it, as Christians, it is all the Lord is asking us to do, and we don’t have to do it on our own. We have Him in us, shining for us, helping us every morning of every day to rise and shine!

By: Christina Lopez

Christina Lopez
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