Victoria Osteen - Let The S-O-N Shine On
Hallelujah, we bless you in this place. I was in a garden shop the other day, and I came across some of these really cute little lights, solar lights, and I was looking at the different styles they had, and I thought these are so cute, and I have the perfect place to put these lights. There's a place at our side back door, when you walk out, you begin to walk down this little path, and you can't see anything, it's so dark. I don't have any electricity out there, so I thought these solar lights will be perfect to place along that path so that we can see at night 'cause I'm always stumbling, trying to stay on the little path.
So, I took the lights, put them in the ground. It was a beautiful sunny day, I thought, "These lights are going to power up, it's going to be amazing. I can't wait to take a walk tonight, see how my lights are working". So, I didn't say anything to Joel about it, but I said, "Hey, let's go take a walk". So, we went outside, started to go down that little path. I wanted to see if he noticed my new lights.
So, as we started walking down the path, I realized my lights weren't working. I didn't say anything to Joel because I didn't want him to know that I had put lights there and my plan had failed, so I just kept walking down the path. But in my mind, I was so discouraged, I thought, "Now, I thought those lights were just going to work beautifully, they're solar lights". I thought, "You know what? Tomorrow, I'm taking those lights up and I'm Marching them straight back to the store, and I'm going to tell them they're cute, but they don't work. They're no good to me if they don't work".
So, the next morning, I got up and I took the lights out, and I started looking at how it was, and I began to kind of examine it, and I noticed under the bottom, in the corner was this little, bitty tab. I thought, "I've seen this before". You're supposed to pull the tab so that what is inside the light can be illuminated by the sun. That's what gives it the power. So, I thought, "Oh wow, okay". So, I went and I pulled all the tabs, put them back down, thought, "Tonight is the night". Got Joel, wanted him to come take a walk with me so he would notice my lights, and sure enough, they were shining brightly. They illuminated my path.
Now, Joel wasn't as impressed with my lights as I was, but they were working perfectly once I figured out to pull the tab so that they could be powered by the sun. You see, we're very much like those solar lights. We have to pull our tab. That means remove anything in our life that would block us from allowing the son, the S-O-N, to shine on us. You see, we have something on the inside of us, and it is the seed of God, and when we allow his presence to shine on us, when we do all we can do to bask in his presence, get more of him, we are also illuminated. See, we weren't meant to stumble around in the darkness. We weren't meant to not know the way to go. God says that we were meant to shine like stars in the universe, but we've got to allow the S-O-N to shine in our life. See, just like that tab, we've got to remove anything that's stopping the light from shining on us.
I have a tree in my backyard, and it's about 10 inches wide. It's a pretty big tree, but it's so strange because the tree grows at an angle, and I look at that tree and I think, "That is so weird", and one day, I was out talking to my yard man, and I said, "This tree grows so funny", and he said, "Well, Victoria, the reason this tree is growing at an angle is because there are so many shrubs and other trees around it trying to crowd out its light. This tree is literally struggling to try to grow towards the light".
You see, the tree is doing its best to survive. It knows that it grows in the light, so it's struggling to get to the light. Are some of you today struggling to get through the light because you've allowed too many things to crowd your life? Maybe busyness is crowding your life from the light. Maybe you have some friends that are covering your life, and it's not allowing the light to shine on it because they don't have the same values that you have, they don't understand the importance of being in the house of God, of prayer, of worship. But you keep going back to those friends because they've been friends for a long time. You see, that yard man said, "If you'll prune away some of these bushes, if you'll make some room for the light to come in, this tree will literally quit struggling and it may just straighten up and go straight up to the sun. It may grow properly".
See, I want to encourage us today to prune our lives, to look at what's stopping us, to be fully exposed to God, to be fully walking in his presence at all times. Sometimes over-commitment even of good things can keep us from the time spent with God. Busyness isn't always good. We need to prune some of the busyness out of our life. You know, some people don't even realize this, that unforgiveness and anger can cover our life from being totally exposed to the sun. You see, if we allow anger and bitterness to stay around too long, guess what? The sun may come up in the morning. If we let the sun go down on our anger, it stays too long, the sun may come up in the morning, but it can't reach us because we've separated ourself through bitterness, through anger, through unforgiveness.
You see, when you can't forgive, God says, "How do you expect me to forgive you? You can't even see me to allow forgiveness to flow". You got to let the sun break forth. Take those weeds of unforgiveness out of your life. Root up that anger. Don't allow it to stop the flow of God in your life. Pull the tab, so to speak, and say, "Enough is enough". You see, you may be struggling today. You may be struggling to grow towards the light. You can make a decision to do what it takes to straighten up again.
You know, there's a scripture in the Bible that said the people of Israel, they were so discouraged, they had so much coming against them, it says that they were so discouraged, they couldn't even believe. They couldn't even see God in the midst of their challenge because all they could see was more discouragement. They kept their eyes on what was wrong instead of looking at what God could do. You see, that discouragement was a cloud that was blocking the light. They couldn't even lift their eyes and look through the cloud to see God, and we have to realize discouragement, when we face challenges, we can't allow it to get inside of us. Discouragement is like a cloud that blocks the light from our life.
You see, we've got to let go of discouragement and let God shine his light on us. Have you ever realized that maybe it had been raining several days, and you've been in the house a lot, or you go to work and you come home at night, and it's gloomy and it's rainy, and it just changes your perspective? You just think, "Man, this rain has just got me down". I don't know what it does, it just kind of does something to our psyche. But then the light bursts forth, and it's like, "Oh my goodness, the sunshine", and you begin to say, "I want to go outside. I want to do something. I want to get out in the sunshine. It's been cloudy and rainy for far too long".
You see, God wants his light to burst into your life that very same way. The things that you are afraid to do, the things that you are stuck in, he wants that light to burst in and you to move forward. But you've got to remove the fear, the discouragement in your life so that God can burst in with his life and his light. Can you identify anything that's separating you from letting the S-O-N shine on you? You know, it's so important that we spend time by ourselves, with ourselves, in God's word. Time alone with God, reading his word. You see, the Bible is alive and powerful, the scripture says. It is God-breathed words. They're not any words, they're not like the words in a regular book, a newspaper. The Bible are God-breathed words, and it is so important that we spend time in the word.
Now, some people think, "Well, that's okay, you know what? I listen to preaching, I listen to podcasts", and I'll tell you what, when you spend time in the word, it'll make that even richer. They say, "I don't really need the Bible". I was talking to a guy and he says, "I don't need the Bible, I got Joel". Sorry, Joel. It's true, I'll keep Joel. But I was trying to explain to him the reason he needs to spend time in the word, because it's a relationship with God. You know, sometimes I read some scriptures, especially in the Old Testament, and I truly don't understand it at the time I'm sitting there.
But you know what I do before I close my Bible? I say, "God, I thank you that your word is alive and powerful, that it divides anything, whether I understand it. That you have breathed on these words, so these words are breathing back on me. They're causing me to be able to rightly divide my life, to make the right choices, the right decisions". Because I've spent time letting God breathe on me, I can go out and breathe on my life, to be a good steward of my life, to help other people. You see, it is so important. The Bible says that the Word of God is a lamp unto our feet, it is a light unto our path. It will shine you in the right direction.
Don't think, "Well, I didn't get anything out of the word today", because let me tell you, if you'll store that word up, God will bring it to life in you. He'll bring it to life in you. But you've got to take time to sit and be with God. Ten minutes a day, start right there. You know, sometimes we got to get out of the house. Whatever it takes, get up 10 minutes earlier. When I was a young girl, I remember me and my friends, we liked to worship the sun. We didn't realize, you know, you're supposed to put sunscreen. We put oil all over us. We'd do 5 minutes on the front and 5 minutes on the back so we would bake evenly. We let the sun shine on us.
Can I tell you 5 on the front and 5 on the back, let God's word bake evenly in your life. Let it bake evenly. Listen, God is a good God. He wants to shine his light on you. There is nothing that he can't destroy. There's nothing that he can't get rid of. There's no habit, there's nothing that he can't break in your life if you will only expose yourself to the S-O-N. Don't let anything keep you from it. Shake off discouragement, get rid of anger, get in the Word of God, and remember what Jesus said in John 8:12, "I'm the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness", amen? He's an awesome God.