Switch On Your Light!

Written By Joy-Ann Wood, West Indies

I recently attended a concert by Grammy Award-winning Christian music artist Israel Houghton, otherwise known as Israel & New Breed. At one point during the concert, Israel asked everyone to turn on their cellphone lights as he led the audience to sing, “Jesus is the Light of the World”.

You may have been asked to do the same at concerts. The singer instructs the audience to “put a lighter up” or to turn on their cellphone lights, and the main lights in the concert hall are then dimmed. It’s a chance to contribute a personal touch to the concert.

So as we sang about Jesus being the Light of the world, we were also being individual lights at Israel’s concert.

Isn’t it amazing that Jesus is calling us to be lights, to shine for Him? It is astounding that He finds us worthy to be shining ambassadors of His truth in our schools, communities, and workplaces.

In Philippians 2:15, Paul calls believers “children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation” and urges them to “shine as lights in the world”.

Doesn’t that excite you? As children of God, we have been selected to stand among our schoolmates, workmates, neighbors, and friends who have not yet committed their lives to Jesus, to shine for our Savior. Today, Jesus is telling us to be His catalyst for change in this messy world of sin.

Jesus is calling you and me to shine. He is telling us to shine in our attitudes, speech, and actions, and to have a genuine love for others. This is our big moment to shine bright and make a difference for Jesus Christ.