Hi Everyone,

Hope you are all well! Did you all enjoy the beautiful Christmas lights? I did.

As I was looking at the lights the other night, even brighter lights caught my eye. I looked up and noticed all the stars shining in the sky. ‘Wow!’ I thought, they were so bright and sparkled like diamonds! It made me think how we can put as many lights as we want around the garden and house but God’s lights are so much brighter, beautiful and sparkly!  And the darker the night the more they sparkle and shine!

Isaiah 60:1-2 AMP says “Arise (from the depression and prostration on which circumstances have kept you – rise to a new life)! Shine (be radiant with the glory of the Lord) for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you! For behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and dense darkness (all) peoples, but the Lord shall arise upon you (O Jerusalem), and His glory shall be seen on you.”

Yes, I know it’s about Jerusalem but I believe God is speaking to us as believers also. The darker our surroundings become the more brightly we should shine! Yes, we are surrounded by the same issues that the unsaved are but we have the precious Holy Spirit of God shining from within us! The unsaved should see that we are different, they should see that even in dark times we are peaceful and unmoved by circumstances.

We don’t need to be paralysed by fear and anxiety, we just need to trust that He who watches over us (Psalm 121),  will either stop us from being thrown in the fiery furnace or will be with us in it to bring us through! (Daniel 3:16-28)

In this dark and unstable time that covers the world at the moment, we can still be stable and secure if we don’t allow the darkness to get into us!

As the saying goes, ‘A ship may be surrounded by oceans of water and it will float but if the water gets inside the ship, it sinks!”

That’s what we’re like!

So my dear brothers and sisters in Christ, let’s make an effort to ‘Arise and Shine’ and show the unsaved that we have something that they need…. We have the Lord God Almighty, the Creator of the universe on our side! So “If God is for us, who (or what) can be against us?” (Romans 8:31)

“The Lord bless you and watch, guard, and keep you; The Lord make His face to shine upon and enlighten you and be gracious to you; The Lord lift us His countenance upon you and give you peace (tranquillity of heart and life continually)." Numbers 6:24-26 AMP

More Scriptures – Psalm 112:4, Micah 7:8, Matthew 5:16, Matthew 13:43, 2 Corinthians 4:6, Philippians 2:15.

God bless you all and have a great week!

Love Giovanna!