Let Your Light Shine

We are studying the Sermon on the Mount at church this year and this week’s message was on Matthew 5:14-16 – the light of the world passage. I’ve read these verses many times, heard sermons on them, sung songs about shining my light, even memorized this passage. We’re supposed to let our light shine and not be ashamed to say we’re Christians. Nothing new to learn this week. But there was! It came to me when the pastor read, “Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house.”

Somehow, all this time I had thought that I was the one in control of my light. It was my light and I could decide whether I would let it shine or hide it under a bowl. It wasn’t until this Sunday that I realized that a lamp cannot light itself. (Seems kind of obvious, but I missed it.) God is the one who gave me His light, who set me on fire. And He has not set His lamp under a bowl. He has put it on a stand, where it can give light to everyone in the house.

There is a reason God lit my lamp. Like the verse says, no one lights a lamp and then tries to hide it. God has specific people and places that need the light He can shine through me. I read a cute Halloween analogy this past week: Christians are like jack-o-lanterns. God put His light in us so we can shine for all to see. May I remember that “it is God who works in [me] to will and to act according to his good purpose” (Phil. 2:13).

Mt. 5:14-16 "You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.”