Let the Son shine in your life!
Malachi 4:2 “But for you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its rays.”
There is something about the sun and sunlight.
Even on a cold winter day the rays of the sun can provide warmth and cheer. The best way to understand and appreciate what the sun brings is to be deprived of the sun’s warmth and light for an extended period of time.
With that imagery of the sun or lack thereof in mind, please reread our verse for this week.
A little explanation about the imagery and word choices in this verse. It is the last prophecy in the Old Testament of Jesus as the coming Messiah. The people who originally read Malachi’s words were living in a rather difficult and troubling time. They would welcome any ray of hope or good news. To people living in such circumstances they would latch on to the imagery of “the sun….will rise with healing in its rays.” To them it would be like a bright, sunny day after many days of dreary cold in the depths of winter.
There is one more part of this verse which we need to focus on “for you who revere my name.” That is a fancy way of saying “you who believe in Jesus as your Savior.”
If you put it all together, Malachi is telling the people of his day and those in our day and age who are going through tough times or can’t see a ray of hope – “For you who believe in Jesus, he will shine his love and forgiveness with healing into your life.”
Are you or someone you know having a hard time “catching the Christmas spirit” this year because of the hard or sad things you’ve been through in your life? Malachi’s words remind us to shine the Sonshine of Jesus into our (their) life through his Word. Malachi’s encouragement is not a “maybe” or “hopefully” this will make you feel better. God speaks through his prophet Malachi and gives us a guarantee and promise that when we shine his Son, Jesus, into our lives through his Word, he will be there to light up our darkness and chase away the gloom.
This morning I got an email from a young lady who has been asking my help through a very challenging time in her life over the last year or so. I had not heard from her in a while so I was hoping that things had gotten better. Her email this morning initially saddened me because she related how the troubles had again reared their ugly head. I was happy to see that after she updated me on the situation, she immediately asked me for some Bible passages to help give her hope in the midst of her current darkness.
This week we again look forward to Christmas and celebrating the birth of Jesus to bring God’s bright light to earth to chase away the darkness of sin and its effects. We all realize that this time of the year is hard for any number of people who see nothing but doom and gloom.
Rejoice and celebrate that God sent his Son as the Sun of righteousness! As you encounter those who need that Sonshine, share and shine the hope that you have! God’s blessings to each of you as we take the final steps to the manger and find our hope and Sunshine in God’s Son in the form of a little baby!