Friday, 4th October, 2024
Bible Reading: Matthew 5: 13-16
Memory Verse: Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven. Matthew 5:16 (NKJV)
The Bible describes Christians as light to the world and salt to the earth. This is very profound and comes with a lot of responsibility. As light to the world, we are to provide illumination, direction, and guidance. We are responsible for bringing people from gross darkness where they are laden with the shackles of sin to the light of God where they discover who they are and what they have as a result of the substitutionary sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the Cross of Calvary.
As salt to the earth, we are saddled with the responsibility of making the lives of everyone around us heaven on earth. Without a measure of salt in a soup, no matter the number of other condiments, the soup remain tasteless. Hence, we must be adequately prepared to bringing the best of God out in the lives of our neighbours. To perform these two responsibilities as light and salt, we need three major ingredients:
1. The character of God via discipleship.
2. The wisdom of God.
3. The power of God.
1. THE CHARACTER OF GOD
Discipleship is God’s method of bringing men into the full stature of the person and character of Christ. It is one thing to accept Jesus as your personal Lord and saviour but it is another thing to know the person, nature and character of God. What you do reflect who you are. Many are confessing Jesus as their personal Lord and saviour only from their lips and not from their hearts. If Jesus is indeed your Lord and your saviour, you won’t crucify Him (nail Him to the Cross) the second time.
But how have you crucified Jesus the second time? By your inseparation from sin. You still steal, tell lies, quarrel with your neighbour, fornicate, masturbate, watch pornography, your intolerance, etc. The life of Christ is NOT an upgrade or update of your former life of sin. It is a completely New life. You are now a New creature. Old things are passed away, and all things have become new (2 Cor. 5:17). Until you embrace this truth, you cannot be a light indeed to your world and a salt indeed on earth to people around you.
Challenge: Dear Minister of the Word, what discipleship strategy have you put in place for new converts to indeed know Jesus and grow thereby? Evangelism is incomplete without proper follow-up and discipleship into the full stature of Christ.
Quote: What you do reveals who you are.
Prophetic Decree: May Great light from the throne of Grace scorch the darkness of sin in your life, in Jesus name.
Prayer Focus
1. Thank you Jesus for your Light in my spirit.
2. Holy Spirit, please alter the nature of sin in my life that I may indeed shine as light to my world.
3. I receive grace to live according to the dictates of the New creature, in Jesus name.
4. Every foundational entanglement to sin in my life, be roasted by fire, in Jesus name.
5. Light of God overcome every iota of darkness in my life, in Jesus name.
6. I receive grace to be a doer of the Word and not a hearer only, in Jesus name.
BIBLE IN ONE YEAR: Matthew 3, Mark 1, Luke 3