"Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven", Matthew 5:16. As a Christian, I often struggle with the responsibility of sharing my faith (beliefs) with others. How am I supposed to do that? Who am I supposed to tell? Will they laugh at me? When it comes down to it, these are not the right questions to be asking.

The truth is how I live and what I do in my personal life will have a much larger impact on my influence with others than what I tell people in my quest to "witness" to them. Who you are on the inside will determine what others see on the outside. You can’t fake it no matter how hard you try. If we really want to have a positive influence in other people’s lives, than we must be genuine. Only then will we have a lasting impact on others.

This is exactly what Jesus meant when He said, "Let your light so shine before men". He didn’t say "Make" your light shine. The reason is simple. You cannot force your beliefs on others. Not only that, but God will not accept forced obedience. He will never take away our right to choose. Never! Far too often, well meaning people get so excited about their ideas that everyone they speak with must accept them or they get offended. Why? They fail to understand that we were all given the freedom to choose for ourselves. No one, not even God can take that right away.

This is why Jesus used the word "Let". We are commanded to tell everyone about the Gospel, however, we are not given the green light to pummel people over the head with our beliefs. So where is the balance? This is where being genuine comes in. If we spend time with God every day and put Him first in our private lives, it will be impossible to cover up that fact in public. Then, when people see us they will see God living in us. At that point our light will shine brighter than the sun.

When we spend time with God, it will be the most natural thing in the world to talk about our best Friend. Instead of forcing ourselves to speak about ideas we have not fully ingested, we will be able to speak about our faith as freely as we talk about our favorite baseball team or our favorite TV show. This is how you "Let your light so shine before men". So what do you say? Why don’t we spend more time with God so we can shine the way we were meant to.