READ: MATTHEW 5:14-16; ROMANS 8:35-39

Picture this. The room is dark, and you blink as your eyes adjust to the light created by the glowing candles on top of a birthday cake. “Okay, make a wish and blow the candles out,” your friend says. You nod, close your eyes, and blow out the candles. But when you reach for the cake knife, you notice something strange. Every candle on your cake has started burning again. So, you take a deep breath and try a second time. Once again, all the flames disappear, but one by one the candles spark, and soon they’re burning again.

What’s going on? You look at your friend, who’s grinning from ear to ear. You roll your eyes as you realize your friends put trick candles on your cake! These special candles are made to relight themselves, no matter how many times you blow them out.

In a way, Christians are kind of like these everlasting candles. When we know Jesus as our Savior, His light glows within us. No matter how hard our broken world tries to blow out our lights, Jesus never lets the powers of darkness succeed. Because Jesus has defeated death and sin and evil by dying on the cross and rising from the grave, everyone who believes in Him has the Holy Spirit living inside us, and God’s presence can never be removed from us (Acts 2:1-24). Even death cannot separate us from God’s love! As we encounter challenges in our broken world, Jesus is right there with us, helping us trust in Him and show others His love. No matter how dark things may get, He empowers us to shine brightly for Him.

So today, may we let the light of Jesus shine in our lives. We’re free to show His love in our words and actions, knowing that Jesus won’t let anything separate us from His love. • A. W. Smith

• Can you think of a time you saw Jesus’s light shining through others? What was that like?

• What are some ways you could show Jesus’s love to the people around you today?

• How can we know that we’re secure in Jesus’s love? (Hint: look at Romans 8.)

Live clean, innocent lives as children of God, shining like bright lights in a world full of crooked and perverse people. Philippians 2:15b (NLT)