I remember when growing up how much I wanted to be like my older brother. I wanted to be like him so much that I’d listen to the same music he’d listen to, I’d try to act tough like him, and I always wanted to hang out with him and his friends. But for him, it wasn’t cool to be seen with me. It wasn’t so much that he didn’t like me, it’s just that he was embarrassed to be seen with me in public. Maybe you can relate. But even if we feel this way about our brothers and sisters here on earth, we need to be careful not to treat Jesus this way. We should never be ashamed of being associated with him. In Luke chapter 9, verse 26 Jesus says:
“If anyone is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.”
Even though it is becoming more and more unpopular to let people know that we are followers of Christ, we should never be ashamed. On the contrary, we should be honored to know the creator of the universe - the one who gave his life so that we may live in eternity with him. Unlike the little brother we don’t want to be seen with, we should look at him the way we look at someone we’re in love with. We should want to show him off to our friends because we are the lucky ones to be associated with him, not the other way around.
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We should never be ashamed to call ourselves Christians, to let others know that we love Jesus with all of our heart and that we want to be like him. We should never want to hide the fact that we are Christians even if there are negative consequences if we do. Jesus says that if we are ashamed of him and his words then he will be ashamed of us in heaven. I don’t believe any of us wants that. So I encourage you, let your light for him shine brightly. As the bible encourages, we should let our light shine on a hill for all to see. We shouldn’t hide it under a bowl.