Radiance

Hey guys! It's been forever since I've posted, but I'm gonna try and be more consistent.
I want to talk a little about radiance.

Radiance: brightness or light. warm, cheerful.

The first time I heard the term radiance, the first thing I thought of was the sun. I mean radiance, the word itself, isn't really a word that I regularly use every day in my vocabulary (if you do...cool!). But yeah, I thought of the sun. I know for everyone that experienced the Texas heat this summer..it was HOT! The sun was RADIANT. While I'm pretty positive nobody was walking around outside talking about how cheerful the heat was, you have to admit: the sun was noticeable. It was light.

"Therefore, let your light shine among men, so that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven." -Matthew 5:16

So I've heard that verse up there a lot in life, and legitimately right now as I'm writing this I'm beginning to see what it means to have a light that shines.
Of course, of course of COUUUURSE we are called as lovers and followers of Christ to witness, to be bold, to share the gospel and carry out Christ's great commission. And I know a lot of times I hear people say that you can do that two ways: through your words and through your actions.
Well what about the way you respond?  What about the way that you carry yourself?  Guys, here we are, and not only are we given this insane gift of having access to communicate with the creator of the universe, but we are presented with joy, unending joy, because we get to spend all of eternity with a God that loves us more than we could ever imagine-and yet we don't go through every single day completely and totally joy-filled, radiant! (granted..we're only human!)
But look at the Psalms:
"Come let us sing for joy to the Lord;
let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation.
Let us come before him with thanksgiving
and extol him with music and song." -Psalm 95:1-2
That's just one section of one Psalm out of that whole book of the Bible-the longest book of the Bible, too! It's filled with praises, and adoration to the Lord.

Guys, I want to challenge you (and myself!) to stop basing your joy on things that are circumstantial. Because while every good and perfect thing comes from the Lord, and He sure does give generously, we live in a broken world, so inevitably rough things are gonna happen-we're gonna have hard days, we're going to go through difficult times. If we allow our joy to be based on whether we are having a good day or not-we're going to fall short, and that 'joy' isn't joy anymore. It's happiness. now NOTHING is wrong with being happy, please don't get me wrong on that. But anyone can be happy-what shows radiance, what shines the light for everyone to see- is when you carry around the hope that Christ has offered us-the hope of eternal life, and you let that define the way you go about your life..people are going to notice.
We can't do this by ourselves...Pray that God can shine through you, and that He will teach you to be radiant.