Let Your Light Shine

What do I have today? Right …..a lamp….It's not very bright…..what's wrong with it? It's plugged in…….oh……I have to turn on the switch……right……that better??

You know Jesus talked about light…….In Matt 5:14-16, Jesus said….. "You are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bushel, Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven."

When Jesus told us we are the light of the world, He was giving us a picture of who we are supposed to be. We are to be Christians everywhere we go. We should act in such a way, that others see Jesus in us and because of what they see they glorify God.

Our problem is that we see this picture Jesus has given us in modern terms. We think about lights today. Lights today come with a switch. We can turn them on and off easily. That is often our view of Christianity today; we turn it on and off as we please. If we want to act like the cool kids around us for a while, we just turn our light off and we act like the world. Then when we feel like doing something for Jesus, we turn it back on again. If we don't want to talk to that person sitting all alone on the playground, we just turn off our light. When we decide to help someone pick up all their papers, they just dropped, we turn it back on again. When we don't stick up for someone that others are making fun of, we turn off our light. When we are at church, we turn the light back on. Funny thing is, that doesn’t work. When we act like the world, like people who don't know Jesus…..the world think we're just like them. Then when we decide to turn on our light, the world sees us as a fake, a phony.

The truth is, switching the light off means knowingly and willingly choosing to sin. We are not doing what Jesus told us to do. Sin brings darkness instead of light. Remember, Jesus said we are not to put our lamp under a basket and hide it.

The next time you feel think about hiding your Christian faith, remember Jesus told us to let our lights shine so that others seeing our good works, would glorify our Father in heaven. We don't let our light shine so others will say good things about us, we let our light shine so others will glorify God. I pray you will let your light shine today and throughout this week everywhere you go.

PRAY

Lord, help us to let our lights shine ALL the time, not just when it's convenient. Amen