Burning my lamp
The devotions for the coming week are taken from Lutheran Tract Mission’s 2025 Advent devotional, ‘Shine the Light’. Written by Anne Hansen, Lutheran Tract Mission’s Tract Development Officer, the devotions focus on the significance of light in God’s story and plan for the world, from the beginning of Genesis 1, where God created light and the lights in the sky, to the last verse of Revelation, where God is the light reigning forever. The ‘Shine the Light’ Advent devotional is available at www.ltm.org.au/flipbk/advent-2025 and can be downloaded, printed or used as a digital flipbook.
by Anne Hansen
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You, O Lord, keep my lamp burning; my God turns my darkness into light (Psalm 18:28).
Read Psalm 18:25–32
How much we take for granted in our technologically advanced world! After my grandmother passed away in 1978, my father gave me the oil lamp that had been sitting on my grandmother’s sideboard and had been used for many years as the ‘Sunday’ lamp. It was the lamp given to my grandmother for her wedding in 1926. It was called the ‘Sunday’ lamp because it was only used on that day.
When I got married, I decided to get this lamp working again, as it had been unused for many years. Firstly, it needed to be cleaned of dust and any soot. We needed to find a chimney and some wicks (double wicked), and then had to find some oil that didn’t smoke. Finally, we got it burning and used it as our ‘Sunday’ lamp, until our children came.
We read about lamps in the Bible and how we are to keep our lamps burning. As I said earlier, we take a lot for granted. Turning on a light switch does not relate to the work it takes to maintain and keep a lamp usable. Depending on the type of oil used, the lamp chimney needs constant cleaning from the soot. If it is not cleaned and the wick trimmed, seeing and reading by its light is extremely difficult.
In Psalm 18, we read about all the work God does in keeping our lamps shining bright. He is faithful to us. He shows himself as blameless, pure and perfect, so we know that he is the one to follow. He tells us his stories and shows us his love. He protects us from the evil around us. God does all this to help our light shine. This brings us out of darkness and into his incredible light. God did all the work through Jesus in sending his Son to Earth to be the light to follow. Jesus is the way, the truth and the light!
Rely on God to keep your lamp burning, lighting your way through each day.
Lord God, you have done all the work to bring me into your amazing love and presented me with unfailing grace and peace. Help me keep my lamp burning for you to share and light the way for others. Amen.
Anne Hansen has worked as the Lutheran Tract Mission Development Officer for 19 years. She lives in Noosa, Queensland, with her husband, Mark (a pastor), and has three grown children – Jonah, Christian and Emma – and is a new proud mother-in-law to Brooke. Anne enjoys attending Mainly Music, walking, reading, gardening and playing pickleball.
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