FOCUS Day 7 | Matthew 5:13-16 by Abigail

DAY SEVEN | Matthew 5:13-16

“Your lives are like salt among the people. But if you, like salt, become bland, how can your ‘saltiness’ be restored? Flavorless salt is good for nothing and will be thrown out and trampled on by others.

“Your lives light up the world. Let others see your light from a distance, for how can you hide a city that stands on a hilltop? And who would light a lamp and then hide it in an obscure place? Instead, it’s placed where everyone in the house can benefit from its light. So don’t hide your light! Let it shine brightly before others, so that the commendable things you do will shine as light upon them, and then they will give their praise to your Father in heaven.”

This is one of my favorite passages in the New Testament, and has been for quite a while. It has been important because it helped form some of my thoughts about why it is important for me to let my light shine and to be salt of the earth.

When I was younger, it seemed so easy for me to let my salt come out of the salt-shaker. I had the childlike faith that Jesus talked about, and I shared my salt with others so freely. But then I went through a season where I had such a hard time allowing my light to shine. It started when I was praying about my family buying a house. My parents had been given a verbal contract. But then it didn’t happen, and my childlike faith stopped. I still believed Jesus could do things, but just not for me. I stopped letting my salt out of the salt shaker and my light shine.

After several months, I realized this difference, and I discovered that I had become afraid that if I prayed, absolutely nothing would happen. I went from knowing that if I prayed there was going to be something that would happened, to believing that there was maybe a 1% chance there would be a small change. I went through a season that I prayed a lot for my childlike faith to come back and slowly, it did. I started to occasionally let my salt out and to slowly uncover my light.

As it started to get better, I was faced with opportunities to keep it hidden, and the thought of “When I pray nothing happens,” returned. I chose to keep that thought to myself. I still listened to God, but again started to be more passive unless I was sure it was God.

And without me realizing it, Jesus began to take me on a journey of proving me wrong. It kind of started when Jesus told me to start praying for this person that I had heard of but never really thought of and his new girlfriend. I said ok, and started to pray. A few months later, the dad of the girlfriend reached out to my dad about Culture of the Few, a book my dad wrote. Now I was so confounded about this, I mean I was really shocked! Especially as the friendship of her parents and us grew and grew.

We went to visit them in New York a few months later, and while we were there, we decided to spent the day in New York City just the three of us. At the end of our day in the city, we made the seemingly odd decision to not get amazing food in the city (which is one of my family’s favorite things to do) and go back to the house. As we pulled into town and decided to get food before going to their house, I was seriously regretting that decision because absolutely NO restaurants were open even if their website said they were. After about 3 strikes, we went back to the house to find our friends talking to their daughter and now son-in-law on the phone.

Jesus whispered a word to me as I talked to the Lord. And somehow the mother-in-law of the guy I had been praying for for over a year knew that I had a word for him. I got the chance to speak life and love to this couple for over 40 minutes. And instead of being shocked about this amazing opportunity, my reaction wasn’t what I expected. I simply said, “I prayed for them, so of course something happened”. Now don’t get me wrong, I was Amazed at what Jesus did! But over the course of the journey Jesus was taking me on, I had left the insecurities almost completely behind.

The realization of “things happen when you pray” came after almost 3 years of unknown and known thoughts of “things don’t happen when I pray and let my light shine”. Those thoughts were confronted, and I was able to shut them down. I still have issues sometimes of feeling that way, but now, about a year later, I am allowing my light to shine more freely again. I pray for people more often. I still don’t always listen when God says to pray, but I do a lot more. Someone told me recently, “There is not a prayer that you pray that fails to move Heaven”. And I want to tell you that to you too. Things really do happen when you partner with Jesus and walk with Him. Heaven really does never fail to move when you let your light shine and salt flavor.

JOURNALING QUESTIONS // LINK TO PLAYLIST

Examine – How would you describe what this passage reveals about the life of Jesus?

MindShift – Is there anything about what you read in this passage that challenges the way you think about what it means to follow Jesus?

Prayer Focus – Is there any prayer that you can pray to co-operate with Holy Spirit to see your mind renewed to become more like Jesus?