I sat through a 15 minutes prayer session last Sunday with some members of my church and the person leading us to pray led us using Matthew 5:14-15 “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house.”

As we prayed, he led us to pray that we will not be the Christians who aren’t put on a stand to give light to others in the house.

While I prayed, the Holy Spirit fleshed out this scripture more to me. He drew my attention to the chronology of the verse. He said “light a lamp” came before “put on its stand”, He said lighting must come before positioning because positioning a lamp without light is futile to the environment and people within who might need light.

My prayer changed, I started to pray that we be Christians who remain in light before we begin to think of positioning, I prayed that we don’t desire lighting just because positioning comes after, I prayed that we’ll desire more to stay ignited even more than the placement that will come after.

He was teaching me in that short time that while being positioned is helpful, it benefits only externally and not internally. Lighting is what benefits both internally and externally. With this revelation, I began to pray even more for mercy, for where we had been more concerned with externals and forgot that the intervals matter even more.

I was thanking God that He chose to make us light, but I told Him also that if our positioning ever became a hindrance to our light (either by pride, self righteousness, the accolades of men or even sheer arrogance), We’ll be grateful to remain light until He dims it right to place us on stands.

I understand how robust certain scriptures can be when we read them, but sometimes even in their robustness, there’s processes and steps which must be adhered to in order to enjoy the benefits of the scripture. So I pray we read Gods word how He prescribed it for us in Isaiah 28:10, “For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little”.

We can’t rush to the B part without considering the A part and we can’t play ourselves to want A just so we can get to B.

May our positioning only come after we’ve been enlightened, and may our lighting confirm the next verse; “…shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.”
Matthew‬ ‭5:16‬