LETTING OUR LIGHTS SHINE Sharon Weeks-Alleyne
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esus has given us many examples on how we should let our lights shine. Light is a symbol of holiness, goodness, knowledge, wisdom, grace, hope and God’s revelations. In John 8:12, Jesus boldly declares that He is The Light of the entire world and if we follow Him, we will not be in darkness. So we first have to accept Him into our hearts and then follow Him. Following Him doesn’t mean just walking behind Him, it means doing everything He does, the way He does it. Therefore, in view of the foregoing facts, we will go through these symbols of light perhaps in two or three writings. Matthew 5:14-16 — Jesus says you don’t light a lamp and then hide it under a bushel, you put it in view so all could benefit from the light.
And then He admonishes us to let our lights shine that men may see our good works and glorify our Father in heaven. So how could we let our light shine as a symbol of holiness? To be holy means, you are set apart from the world and the ways of the world and you’re following the ways of The Lord and His Kingdom Principles. For instance, we don’t lie, cheat, commit fornication, adultery, etc. We are known to do many of these when we’re hiding our light and if we’re caught (like Peter was when he joined those who opposed Jesus by the fire, and when called out as light, denied he was), we either deny being light or we start our pity party and excuses—I’m only human, I’m not perfect, etc.. Yes, we’ll have slip ups, but we need to be truly repentant and not nonchalant about our wrong doings. Next, our light should be a symbol of goodness which is a quality of being morally good or virtuous or the beneficial or nourishing elements of food. So goodness for us could be both, as we need the nourishment of God’s Word so we could be light that stems from 9
