THE BRIGHT SIDE

2 Cor 3v18: And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

Matt 17v2: As the men watched, Jesus' appearance was transformed so that his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as light.

Looking at the bright side of life is a common expression, and often we are encouraged to do this. Unfortunately however, we live in a darkened world, we experience the flesh on a daily basis, and we have an enemy that is always active- so it's easier said than done, especially when going through hard times. Fortunately though, our Lord overcame the world and overcame tribulation, and so He has provided an empowered way for us to always see the bright side of life.

For us as Christians it all begins with beholding the brightness of His glory. In times of worship and in times where we come aside to focus on Him, we too, along with the disciples that once ascended the hill of the Lord, will see our Lord transfigured before us. What this means is a stirring of our souls for Christ; for love, action, worship and for a life lived for Him in every way. This will mean that when we come down from the mountain, we will have the vision we need to look on the bright side of life; not a naive, silly and shallow thing, for we must fight the good fight of faith, but something which was greatly seen in the life of the Apostle Paul- someone who lived through whatever with the joy of the Lord and with a great rejoicing in the midst of great sorrows.

Too often we simply rely on the flesh in trying to see the bright side of life, and even the bright side of the things of God. Furthermore we try to understand and use the flesh even as the disciples often did to even relate to the Lord. Often the disciples tried to understand what the Lord said and did according to their own understanding and way of seeing things (really just how the world would've viewed what Jesus said and did), and often they got it wrong, or even got rebuked by the Lord because their thinking was way off. It was only when the Holy Spirit came, that Great Helper, that their understanding became clear, for it was only by that power that they saw Jesus, this life and all spiritual things as they really were and in the right manner. So we too, will only see our lives and everything about them in the right manner if we rely on beholding Christ via His Spirit in our lives. Christ is the brightness of God and the glory of this life, and only when we grasp that, will we be able to see 'the bright side' of this life, no matter what we go through.

As we take time to behold Christ, the eyes of our understanding will see and know Christ as He really is, and thus will we see this life as it really is. But if the fruit of our Eden is the flesh, we'll suffer for it; the eyes of our understanding will be darkened, and we will not see things or experience things or Christ in the right way. The fruit of our Eden must be Christ, and then this will be fixed; we will see the brightness of His glory and thus all the brightness of our lives via the Spirit's own good understanding and clear vision of these things.