I will start out by saying that God is our light; He shines brighter than any light there is in this world. But, He is not a light switch.

What I am saying is that we cannot turn Him on when we want, then turn Him off as if we don’t need Him. We will always need Him – always.

Please think for a minute, what if we were light switches to Him? Sometimes he would flick you on; love you, help you, save you, forgive you, want you, desire a relationship with you, bless you, give you all you need (& want), lead you, call you, and all of the other beautiful things He does for us. Then, sometimes, He would turn us off and shut us out; as if we don’t even matter.

That has never happened. That isn’t happening. And that will never happen.

We cannot decide when we want to follow God. We cannot choose when we want to be our Christian self. We cannot simply turn Him off simply because we make an excuse. If He did this to us, we would be hopeless. Living a life as a follower of God is living a life of reckless abandon and enjoying the journey of finding ourselves through losing ourselves in Jesus. We do not choose when we follow him, we do it. And we do not stop.

To be a Christian is to trust Him and to understand that no matter what, He is behind you. He knows all of your thoughts, actions, and feelings. Even if you act like He isn’t there, He is – I pinky promise. We cannot escape Him, and that’s the coolest thing ever.

When we become a Christian, we become a child of God, we start a new life in Him, and when we become a Christian, we turn on the light. That is when we flick the light switch on, and being a child of His means that the light switch stays on. When you made this choice, it changed your life. We cannot make the choice to love it out at our own convenience and only do it when we feel necessary.

God gives us free will, not to abuse it, but to give us decisions throughout our entire lives. Daily, we make hundreds of decisions. Weird, right? Even before you leave for class or work in the morning, you have made a multitude of choices. What time to get up, what to do first, what to wear, what creamer to put in your coffee, Splenda or real sugar, what shoes to wear, banana or pancakes, shower or wait until tonight; blah, blah, blah, that’s only a couple.

He gives us this free will to challenge us. There is a path that He has made us so that we follow Him, and make choices to honor him and strengthen your relationship with Him along the way. He gives us this free will to challenge us to see if we will switch the light to off, or keep it on. Free will is a blessing, and we must treat it like one.

He isn’t there for a backup or last resort, He is there to be our other half, to direct us and love us and be there for us all the time. No matter what, we should look to Him and keep Him on.

In the same way, we should be lights that are on all of the time, and we need to act like it. God created us to be lights in this dark world, to share His name and word to every nation and generation. I cannot image the lives we would live if God turned us off when He didn’t need us. If it was like that, we should be off all of the time. He doesn’t need us whatsoever, He wants us, and that is the beauty of this life.

We need Him, and sometimes we turn Him off. He wants us, and He never turns us off. If anything, shouldn’t it be the other way around?

What an awesome, awesome God we serve, my brothers and sisters.

I tell you all of this so that you will keep Him on in your life all of the time, because He is always there. He will help you and guide you through everything you face every single day. He knows your thoughts and He has a journey designed specifically for you. You are where He wants you right now, even if you do not want to be there. We must accept that where we are is where He intended for us to be and trust Him.

Live every day like the day you accepted Christ into your life, absolutely on fire for Him the day you switched the light from off, to on. He is the light, and in Him you will never be in the darkness.

Keep that switch on and be the light, because in God’s eyes, that is exactly what you are.

John 8:12 "Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, 'I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life'."