“This Little Light of Mine”

GETTING STARTED

As a kid, I would sing the classic children’s gospel song, “This Little Light of Mine,” replete with hand movements. Now, as a therapist, I have an even greater admiration for the folksy little tune by Harry Dixon Loes. The simple song is based on today’s passage where we see Jesus instructing the disciples through the metaphors of light and health. Not coincidentally, as I write this devotional, the power in our office building is out and there is very little light to work by.

  • Take some time to reflect on moments in your life when you were “in the dark,” so to speak.

READ THE WORD: LUKE 11:33-36 (ESV)

33 “No one after lighting a lamp puts it in a cellar or under a basket, but on a stand, so that those who enter may see the light. 34 Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eye is healthy, your whole body is full of light, but when it is bad, your body is full of darkness. 35 Therefore be careful lest the light in you be darkness. 36 If then your whole body is full of light, having no part dark, it will be wholly bright, as when a lamp with its rays gives you light.”

English Standard Version, copyright 2001 by Crossway Bibles. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

DIGGING DEEPER

  1. Who benefits from the illumination of a lamp on a stand?
  2. In verse 34, Jesus contrasted a healthy eye with a bad or diseased eye. What is a healthy eye and what are the benefits? What is a diseased eye and what are the consequences?
  3. Jesus alluded to the fact that not everything we take in through our eyes will produce light or health in our lives. What are some areas of your life where you are consuming darkness?
  4. How is this consumption of darkness also limiting the illumination of Jesus for those around you?

RESPOND TO GOD

I love how this part of the study is about our response to God, for Christ had been speaking to his disciples in the past few passages specifically about the importance of responding to his teachings. Darrell Bock, in his commentary on this passage wrote, “In sum, we must take in the teaching Jesus offers, for it is our source of spiritual light and spiritual health.” Simply put, we receive and respond. Therefore, respond to God today. Start by praying through the following:

  • Ask God to show you where you are living in denial or choosing darkness. 
  • Ask him to make the wisdom he offers visible and applicable in your life. 
  • Thank the Holy Spirit for offering you the ability to respond to the light so that you may participate in illuminating the world to the grace of Jesus.