What Watt Are You?

By Cheri Cowell –

The other day I had to replace a light bulb and did not have the correct wattage on hand. Standing in the light bulb section at the home improvement store, I was lost. There must have been hundreds of choices of 75-watt bulbs. I had no idea it was that complicated. I finally settled on a bulb and headed home to bring light back to my office.

As I drove home I wondered what it would be like if Jesus could label our light-bearing wattage. Would I be a 100-watt, 75 watt, or a 40-watt bulb? Would I be one of those new colored light bulbs that bring out the colors in a room? Would God say I helped to bring out His colors in the world around me? Jesus asked the same questions.

The popular salt and light passage below follows another popular teaching on the beatitudes. Taken in context with the beatitudes this passage is telling the church how they are to take God’s ways as described in the beatitudes and use them to illuminate the path for others to find His way. In modern-day language, we are to be a 100-watt bulb for the world to find its way toward God.

PRAYER: Thank You, God for being full of so much color that You require specially equipped light-bearers to illuminate them. I humbly praise You for choosing me to be one of those light-bearers, and ask You to help me keep an open house and to shine for You in a dark and needy world.

“Here’s another way to put it: You’re here to be light, bringing out the God-colors in the world. God is not a secret to be kept. We’re going public with this, as public as a city on a hill. If I make you light-bearers, you don’t think I’m going to hide you under a bucket, do you? I’m putting you on a light stand. Now that I’ve put you there on a hilltop, on a light stand—shine! Keep open house; be generous with your lives. By opening up to others, you’ll prompt people to open up with God, this generous Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:14-16 MSG).