Luke 8:16 (below the prayer)
Help me Abba Father to NOT try to hide my light. Forgive me for doing so many times in the past. I am ashamed of myself for it. I can see that I didn’t want to put it completely out, but am guilty of trying to dim it a little. Why? Abba Father, if I had to say based on my current understanding I would say that it could be compared to as this. Say that I have unbelieving family members coming over to eat at Thanksgiving. I know that they don’t believe and or fear that if my light was shining brightly that they would ridicule me, or try to debate my beliefs. I live in my house and as people enter in I put up a curtain to block a lot of the light. I don’t want to put it completely out, but why do I try to keep the brightness of the light of the Holy Spirit which dwells within me from shining brightly? I feel it within myself! When these family members come I seem to want the light to not be too bright for them. Hence the curtain to take away the brightness. That is wrong! That is stifling the glorious work that You, the King of Glory might be trying to do. By doing this I am trying to please man instead of my Father in Heaven. I am trying to create a place so that those who are saying that they don’t believe won’t be forced to see their own wickedness because of Your glorious light that shines brightly. If I have the curtain up so that they can come in and they might still be comfortable in their sin because the light of Jesus Christ is being hidden a bit so that the filth of their own guilt won’t be exposed. I can’t make anyone choose You Father, nor can I change anyone in my own power. Help me Abba Father to stop trying to dim the glorious light that You have put within me! If those who are walking into the well lit room because of Your light that I DO DESIRE TO SHINE EVER SO BRIGHTLY from me, if they become angry or condescending or begin mocking me , I desire for YOU to help me to respond in all patience and meekness and humble kindness and love. Help me not to lash out or run and hide. If they seem to not want to come back again because Your light shining brightly in the darkness and showing each one his own wickedness within his own heart and flesh, then Lord God help me to accept that they may not come back. If they don’t come back it is not because of me, but instead because Your light shines upon them and causes some to see places in their lives that need the blood of Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit causes light to shine brightly and begins to convict the hearts of the sinner. When someone chooses to rebel against the convicting truth they will flee back into the darkness where they might be comfortable going on in the wickedness they have grown to enjoy. Often it is because of selfishness, because we would rather live in deception that this world will provide freely to be able to walk in our own fleshly desires. I pray LORD God that You will help me to stand like a light on a hill shining brightly and stop ME from trying to help others to be comfortable in their sin. I am certainly not doing what You expect and require of those who say they are the children of God. I am not saying I should point out the sin of those around me , no, I have my own filth to constantly be asking and praying for You to wash from my flesh. When I let Your light shine brightly, then I pray it might begin changing the hearts and minds within each who see the light of God. That they might desire to seek You. Not because I am saying things to them to condemn or convict them or trying to convince or convert them but because the Holy Spirit which is the light dwelling in the hearts of those who belong to You Father. If I might not fear my light shining brightly, but instead allowing it to shine brightly knowing that the Holy Spirit might actually be received by others and hearts will begin to be changed. Not because of me but because of thee that lives within me.
I thank You LORD God, I ask for Your help in living and walking in the way You would desire me to, knowing that simply by following Jesus Christ that others might also desire to know You. In the mighty name of Jesus Christ I ask and pray these things. Amen.
Luke 8:16 KJV
No man, when he hath lighted a candle, covereth it with a vessel, or putteth it under a bed; but setteth it on a candlestick, that they which enter in may see the light.
On the Edge Again 