Go Be Radiant was inspired by Hebrews 1:3 where Jesus is referred to as the “radiance of God’s glory, the exact representation of His being.” The word “radiance” caught my attention, so much so that I began to dig a little deeper and search for other occurrences in Scripture.
In this post I’m going to take you on a brief tour of a couple of those passages. As we explore them, I hope you will begin to see why I have embarked on this quest to go be radiant and I hope you will join me.
Let’s start our tour on Mount Sinai. If you are familiar with the book of Exodus, you may recall that in chapter 34, Moses was on there in the presence of God, speaking with Him. On the way down the mountain, unbeknownst to him, Moses’ face was radiant. I don’t mean that it had a bit of a glow about it, I mean it was so radiant that when his brother, Aaron, and the other Israelites saw him, they were afraid!
Now, I want to be radiant, but not *so* radiant that people are afraid to come near me. The point here is that the reason Moses was radiant was because he had spent time with God. I believe that when we spend time with God, we can also reflect His glory.
Moses ends up putting a veil over his face to hide the extreme radiance. It made me wonder if we sometimes try to veil our radiance too. Maybe we work or live in a place where it’s not acceptable to be very open about our faith. I have a friend who works at a public school and she does her best not to cover her faith or her radiance with a veil. She tries strategically to be light in her environment.
Let’s continue our tour to the book of Matthew. In chapter 17, we read that Jesus took his inner circle disciples, Peter, James and John, up to a high mountain. It was there that Jesus was transfigured before them. “His face shone like the sun and his clothes became as white as the light.” Now, the passage doesn’t specifically use the word “radiant” to describe Jesus’ face, but I’m going to go out on a limb and say that “shone like the sun” is as close to “radiant” as you’re going to get.
In verse 3 Moses and Elijah appear. Moses? Yes, the same one who came down Mount Sinai with the radiant face. Then, in verse 5, God speaks from a *bright* cloud that covered them. Again, we see the idea of radiance.
We have to remember that while on earth, Jesus was 100% man and 100% God, and people didn’t often get to see the full extent of His glory. At the transfiguration, Jesus had an incredible opportunity to unveil his glory and allow Peter, James and John to see it.
Why did he do that? I wonder if part of what Jesus was saying was, “this is who I am, live in such a way that reflects the glory you see.”
When I talk about my quest to be radiant, I know it’s not easy. There are things in our lives that will cloud or dim our radiance. For example, as I was preparing this post, both of my kids got sick. Let’s just say I was not looking radiant, feeling radiant or acting radiant.
In Scripture we find someone else who struggled with his radiance, Peter. You may recall that he denied Christ not once, not twice, but three times. Afterward, he goes back to his former way of life, fishing. But in a beautiful scene in John 17, that one of my mentors refers to as “Breakfast on the Beach,” we see how Jesus reinstates Peter. Essentially Jesus re-focuses Peter’s attention back on Jesus and His plan for Peter’s life.
Now in the times when our circumstances are difficult, whether it’s financial difficulties, an argument with a spouse or friend or uncertainty in our future, our radiance can be veiled. For instance, my husband and I were recently contemplating moving. The thought of moving was so daunting to me and I began spending a lot of time thinking about it. I had no desire to try to find a new place, pack up all of our belongings, and try to get our kids adjusted to a new home.
So what can we do when our circumstances are interfering with our ability to be radiant? We might very well need to ask Jesus to help us, just like He helped Peter.
Another way we can combat the potentially negative influence our circumstances can have on our radiance is to “fix our thoughts on Jesus,” (Hebrews 3). The idea behind what the author wrote here is a continual, on-going contemplation of Jesus, not just a passing thought.
Since I’d been stressing about the idea of moving, I decided to try to fix my thoughts on Jesus instead of on moving. I began spending more time in the Word, more time in prayer and more time thinking about Jesus, and you know what? It actually made a difference! My focus started to shift from my circumstances to what I was reading about in Scripture.
Fixing my thoughts on Jesus didn’t change my circumstances, but it changed the way I looked at them. It also changed the amount of time I was spending thinking about them. I started thinking about Jesus more and in so doing, I realized I was beginning to trust Him a lot more to take care of my circumstances.
I don’t know how much time you’re spending with Jesus right now, but I bet a little bit more wouldn’t hurt. I also don’t know what your circumstances are right now, but I don’t diminish them in any way. Whatever you are experiencing right now might be and feel huge. So what would happen if you spent a little more time with Jesus, focusing your thoughts on Him? What might change?
We don’t always have the power to change our circumstances but God always has the power to change us through our circumstances.
So here is my challenge for us. Let’s spend a little more time with Jesus this week. Let’s spend a little more time in His Word and a lot more time thinking about Him. And let’s go be radiant!
Go Be Radiant 