I stood at the hotel window looking at the sun that had just risen. The light. The heat. There is something truly amazing about the power of that ball of fire God has suspended in the heavens!

Later that same morning I heard a man say, “Thank God for the sun shining today.” Wherever you are in the world it seems that the day is better if the sun is shining. In so many ways the sunshine is a picture of God’s work in a dark world.

We know that “God is light” (1 John 1:5). Peter tells us that His work in us is so “that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light” (1 Peter 2:9). Numerous hymn writers have recognized the beautiful symbolism of sunshine in the life of a believer…

Judson Van De Venter used the analogy to represent how salvation transforms a darkened heart into God’s light:

I wandered in the shades of night,
Till Jesus came to me,
And with the sunlight of His love
Bid all my darkness flee.

Sunlight, sunlight in my soul today,
Sunlight, sunlight all along the way;
Since the Savior found me
Took away my sin,
I have had the sunlight of his love within.

Eliza Hewitt referred to the sunshine of God’s presence every day when she penned:

There is sunshine in my soul today,
More glorious and bright
Than glows in any earthly sky,
For Jesus is my light.

O there’s sunshine, blessed sunshine,
When the peaceful happy moments roll:
When Jesus shows His smiling face,
There is sunshine in my soul.

A lesser known but powerful song, written by John R. Rice, likens revival to the sun shining again. It has been called “the backslider’s song” and expresses beautifully our need for nearness to Christ:

I remember the time when I first knew the Savior,
When the sunlight of blessing so flooded my heart.
Oh the sweetness of “first love” with Jesus so near me,
And I thought such devotion would never depart.

Let the sun shine again, Let the flowers bloom again;
Stir the embers of love in my heart!
Holy Spirit, reprove, then embrace me again;
Let the sun shine again in my heart!

The God who is all light and all heat makes all of the difference in a cold, dark world! He expects that light to shine through our lives as well. It is said of John the Baptist that “he was a burning and a shining light” (John 5:35). G. Campbell Morgan observed that “it is one thing to shine and quite another to burn.” Many people want to shine but they are not willing to burn!

Ask the Holy Spirit, the God who is a consuming fire (Hebrews 12:29), to set your soul ablaze for Him again. When the inner man is on fire the outer man will shine with the glory of God. Whatever the weather in your part of the world on this day, let it be a day of sunshine in your soul!