Yet you have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their clothes. They will walk with me, dressed in white. (Rev. 3:4)
The cover of the book matters. What we take in with our eyes impacts what we choose to do with a book. Some of us see an old, worn, and weathered book, and we just have to pick it up to see what wisdom it holds. Other of us see a shiny, nicely designed cover and begin reading. The cover, what we see on the outside, pulls us into the contents of its pages.
Every generation has a group who fights to stand out, but by “standing out” they all then look the same. Our world values standing out to blend in, but we are called to stand out and shine. There were some in Sardis who stood out and they were highlighted as an example of how to live. How many of us are willing to stand out and shine for Christ? What if you lived your life in such a way that people wrote about it as an example to others?
It’s not easy to stand out in a world when that choice causes you to become the center of every criticism. The brighter we shine, the more people will look at us, but it isn’t us we want them to see. We want to shine so brightly that they see the reflection of Christ in us and are drawn closer to him because of it.
Ask God to reveal where he has called you to shine.
Maggie Slusher is a young Wesleyan pastor who is passionate about transformational spiritual formation—at every age and season in life. She takes any chance to get outdoors.
© 2020 Wesleyan Publishing House. Reprinted from Light from the Word. Used by permission.
Scriptures taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®.
