Rise and Shine!

eDevotion

Encouragement for your daily walk with God 

I woke up long before daylight this morning, which is not unusual for me. I’m not asking for pity, it’s just the way I am. After getting my first cup of coffee, I went to my home office to begin a devotion time. Today’s Bible reading started with Isaiah 60, and as I read it, a special memory came to mind. 

My dear Mother was the personification of an alarm clock. When we were elementary school age, she would come into our room to wake us up. I remembered that often she would say, “Rise and shine!” I wonder if she got that from the text in Isaiah! 

Although Isaiah was writing about Jerusalem, the application is relevant to every Christ follower. Rise and shine! He wrote about darkness that covered the land, and deep darkness experienced by the people who lived in it [60:2]. However, people would experience the light of God’s glory as it came upon Jerusalem, and gentiles would come to it [60:3].

God often manifested Himself in light, many times referred to as “the glory or the LORD.” Sometimes it terrified people, and sometimes it comforted people. Terror came as dark sins were exposed by the light of God’s glorious judgement. God has every right to do that — to expose and condemn sin. Comfort came in the knowledge that His glory takes away the darkness of our sins so that we can walk in the light of His grace. 

Christ followers know that Jesus is the “brightness of God’s glory” [Hebrews 1:3]; the “light of the world” [John 8:12]; the “true Light,” which gives light to everyone in the world [John 1:9]. And because we know Him [have put our complete trust and confidence in Him], we have experienced the “glory of the LORD.” As John wrote, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” [John 1:14] 

Well, the sun is peeping over the horizon. It’s time to rise and shine. How about it, dear Christ follower, won’t you rise and shine as well! 

Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD rises upon you. Isaiah 60.1