Modern electronics are amazing. Things that required a cord or an independent power source just a few years ago now run on mobile energy.
We have our power in our pocket, and it is our get-up-and-go reservoir for whatever we want to do.
Take mobile phones. Oh, sure, they’re everywhere now, but only a few decades ago, they had to be hooked to a car’s battery to have enough power to operate. Then the batteries became bricks, and now we use wafer-thin flexible batteries that weigh nothing at all.
The same thing happened with flashlights. Watch an old movie (pre-1960) and the flashlights detectives carry around are huge clunkers, more weapons to bash a criminal’s head in than a secretive device for clandestine carrying-on. Now, we attach flashlights to our keychains, and they produce more light than those old truncheons ever did.
Yet, our flashlights aren’t much good in our pockets, are they? If the button accidently gets depressed, the light might be on for hours, and no one will see it. We’ll be wasting our batteries for no reason at all. When we really need the light, it will be drained dry, no good to anyone.
Matthew 5:15 tells us:
“Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it gives light unto all who are in the house.”
The candle was the flashlight of two thousand years ago. It was small, portable, and carried its own power source. However, the power was finite. Use it up, and it was gone. The energy put into making the wax and forming it into the candle was wasted if the candle’s light was not put to good use.
We are God’s flashlight unto the world. When we read our Bibles and spend time in prayer, we are recharging our batteries. We are taking the energy that can only come from above, and we are filling ourselves with his majesty, so that we can shine the light of God in order for others to find salvation through the power of the cross and the death of Christ our king.
If the power of Christ always remains hidden away, God’s investment in us is wasted. All the effort he expends on a daily basis recharging us to go out into the world is for nothing. We are flashlights trapped in a pocket, and our power is draining away, providing no good thing to the nonbeliever, and no benefit to God.
Let’s put our candle on a candlestick, pull our flashlight out of our pocket, and let our belief in Christ shine unto all the world. We do that with love, with the caring way we treat those we come into contact with, and with a kind word telling those around us that our example is Christ, the source of our strength every day.
Our power comes from Christ, and we can never afford to hide him away.
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Code: FGO.I.20.15.vp.kjv