I woke up this morning and lay on my bed meditating. While doing this, my eyes turned towards a corner of my bed where I had placed a flashlight. There was nothing strange about the flashlight as I had used it the night before and it was usual for me to keep it near me when I am in bed, in case here is a power outage anytime during the night.
I picked up the flashlight and looked at it closely. At this point, I felt that the Lord was about to tell me something because of the deep interest I had suddenly developed in the flashlight. In my heart, I asked the Lord what lesson lay in this flashlight. I unscrewed the battery compartment and slid the batteries out. Lifting the flashlight up I looked into the battery compartment. The only thing I saw was a strip of aluminium running through the entire length of one side of  the compartment.

I took a closer look and discovered that when I pressed the switch to the OFF position, there was a break in the strip of aluminium and a small gap appeared. When I pressed the switch to the ON position, the two ends of the aluminium strip were bridged together by another piece underneath the switch. It was now obvious that the long strip of aluminium was not just one strip but two strips with a gap in between. What determines whether light comes on or off is the flashlight switch, which has underneath it, located in the battery compartment, another piece of aluminium which either closes the gap or leaves it open.

I am not an electronics expert. I am sure that all I have described here means nothing to one who is knowledgeable in the theory of electricity circuitry and he could explain it better. Having established the workings of the flashlight, the lesson I was meant to learn became clearer to me.

You and I are like that flashlight. We have in us the ability to project light around us. Our ability to do this however depends on our state. Logic circuit experts  tell us that in the an electric circuit, there are only two states, “On” or “Off”.

When we are in the “On” state, like when the flash light is switched on, we are able to shine forth the light of God to people around us.  Jesus came as the light of the World (John 8:12) and He says that anyone who follows Him will not walk in darkness but will have the light of life.  This implies that one cannot have light outside of Jesus. This reminds me of the Latin maxim I learnt while taking a class in Law, “NEMO DAT QUOD NON HABET” meaning, “no one can give what he does not have”.

That is the lesson the Lord taught me today and I encourage you to step out today and shine forth in God’s glory! He has deposited in us so much light and power to affect people in a positive way. If you do not know the one who is the Light, it only means one thing, you are stumbling in darkness. But there is hope! You can draw near to the one who will not only illuminate your path but will also make you to become a light unto people around you. This is His promise to you, “All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away” John 6:37.

Steve Popoola is the editor of Biblepraise Newsletter and the webmaster of Biblepraise Fellowship Online at http://www.biblepraise.org. He currently resides in London where he works as an IT professional. He serves in the ministerial team of his local church as well as in the music ministry. He is the Moderator/Editor of Biblepraise Newsletter. He can be reached through His email address, steve@biblepraise.org