Shining For The Glory Of God

Sunday, March 7th, 2021

...when we shine, when we dazzle for God’s glory, God is just filled with delight and filled with pleasure.
Bobbi Kumari

TRANSCRIPTION

Hi, my name is Bobbi Kumari, I am from Living In Light, and I would love to welcome you to God Today. I would also love to just release a blessing over your day. Whatever time it might be where you are in the world, may your day be so heaven-kissed. May there be majesty in your mundane, and may there be divinity in the detail. I just release that over your life today.

 

I would love to just share briefly about shining for the glory of God. Now, for me, personally, when I became a Christian, I didn’t know you could shine for Jesus. I actually was under the impression that if I was too showy, or flashy, or shining my light, then I potentially might be stealing God’s glory. Or making it about myself. And actually, I probably needed that because I came from a background into Christianity that was quite showy, and self-seeking, and always needing to be the center of attention. And we wanted to make it all about ourselves. So, actually, I needed that. And I needed that kind of humbling. And I needed that kind of stripping from those kinds of selfish motives and those self-seeking intentions.

 

As I grew my Christianity, I got stripped away from all of that stuff. I fell more and more in love with Jesus. I discovered just how worthy He was, how beautiful and dazzling He was. And as my understanding of that grew, my reverence for Him and my adoration for Him grew. And I just wanted to, over time, live this life where He was the center of attention. And where He was one who received all the praise, all the glory, all the credit, and all the adoration.  

 

Slowly but surely, I began to want desperately to live a life that was a signpost towards Jesus. A life that truly existed for the praise of His glory. And as that became my default position, I actually discovered in the Word and in my relationship with the Lord that we are meant to shine for Him. He created us to shine and I would meditate on scriptures like Matthew 5:16, which speak about us shining for Jesus so that our Father in Heaven would be glorified. You know scriptures like 1 Peter 2:9, that tells us that we should display the majesty and excellency of our Father in Heaven. I have come to discover that Jesus is so glorified and so blessed and pleased when we dazzle and when we shine for Him. And it brings Him so much pleasure when His children rise up, take ownership, and dazzle for God’s glory. 

 

Yes, as humans we are prone to having deceptive hearts. Sometimes we are likely to step back into self-seeking. We are bound to, at times, think it is about us. God is able just to reign us in. If we keep a tender heart and if we stay close to Him, He is able to just bring us back and keep us in check. That doesn’t diminish from His pleasure in seeing us shine. He is not intimidated by us being amazing. He is so pleased and blessed when we dazzle for His glory. 

 

This reminds me of a few summers ago when I took both of my nephews out to the park on a really, really hot summer’s day. On the way, we stopped to buy some ice lollies. And instead of buying single ones, I bought a big pack of 8. I said to the boys, “On the way, we are going to take all the leftover ice lollies and we are just going to give them out.” And they, led by the Lord were to find different random strangers on the way to the park and to love on them and to bless them and to ask them if they would like a free ice lolly.

As the boys did that, they had the best time ever. They loved the experience, they enjoyed so much seeing people’s responses, seeing them take the lolly, seeing the conversations that then followed. They enjoyed being used by God. There was one moment where my little nephew who was probably about 7 at the time, turned around with this big smile on his face and he said to me, “Bobbi! Oh my gosh! I am on fire!” And I said, “Yes, you are, sweetheart, yes you are!” 

At that moment he did think it was about him. He was so lost in the enjoyment of being this vessel of generosity that he really did think it was about him. That didn’t matter to me. What mattered to me was that my two nephews were growing in boldness and that they were shining their light. They were learning about Kingdom generosity and about God’s love. They were being bold in who they had been created to be. They were loving on people that they didn’t know. All of those things filled my heart with so much pleasure.

 

I knew that in due time my little nephew would realize that it wasn’t about him It wasn’t him who was on fire. It was all by the grace of God. But just because he didn’t know that at the moment, it didn’t diminish my pleasure. It didn’t diminish my delight in seeing these boots rise up in who they are being bold.

 

I believe that’s how it is with the Lord. I believe even when our hearts might sometimes deceive us, and we might sometimes believe our own hype, but because God knows our heart and knows we actually long to see Him magnified. And when we shine, when we dazzle for God’s glory, God is just filled with delight and filled with pleasure. 

 

I want to bless you and encourage you today…to shine. To take ownership of who God has created you to be. To be such an incredible signpost towards the glory of God by dazzling. By being showy, being flashy…all for Jesus. And so, I declare over you now that you will arise and shine for your light has come and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.