BY: MEGAN GILMORE
“You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.”Matthew 5:14-16
Anyone who knows me knows I love essential oils. I use them everyday. However, there are days when I pull out my favorite candles to bring warm fragrances into my home.
I had decided to use a candle the other day. When I went to blow it out, the smoke set off my smoke detectors. This caused me to scramble to turn off the shrieking sound. I was jumping up and down and waving my hand in front of it. It was a sight to see! In that moment, I decided the next time I extinguished a candle, I needed to find another way to have the flame go out that didn’t cause my smoke detectors to go off.
The next time I had my candle lit, I decided to just cover it with its lid when I no longer needed it to burn. I stood there watching as the flame slowly died. God spoke a beautiful message while I watched the flame flicker and die. He reminded me that we are His light. Just like this candle, when we are in the right environment and receiving our oxygen from Jesus, we are bright and bringing praise and glory to Him. However, the enemy can be like the lid to our flame. When he comes in, he slowly causes our flame to die.
We often don’t recognize the lid the enemy starts to put on our lives. It begins to suck the oxygen out of our flame. It starts small, like being too tired to get up and have time spend with the Lord in the morning. Or we get too busy to make it to small group and have accountability. It can even be getting stuck in negative thinking cycles instead of choosing joy. Before we know it, our flame is gone.
These small factors begin to take the oxygen out of our lives and our flame dies.
Stop and take a moment to assess your own flame. Are you letting Jesus feed your flame with His oxygen? Or are you allowing the enemy to put a lid on your flame? What can you do to allow your oxygen, Jesus, breathe into your life?
Sing yourself this reminder, “This little light of mine...I’m going to let it shine!”
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