Whom Do You Influence?

Last week my post dealt with who is influencing us. This week we take some time to consider whom we are influencing. Just like we recognized that the influencers who touch our lives may be postive or negative, we must also admit that the influence that goes from us to others may also be positive or negative. Keep in mind that while you may be trying to present a positive influence in a given situation, the receiver of that attempt may interpret it as a negative. With all of that as background, let's consider the persons we are influencing.

As a Christ follower, it is only natural that I would want to influence others as Jesus did. When I consider how Jesus influenced others, I become aware that His influence touched at least three different groups of individuals. My life and probably yours has the same range of touching these identical groupings or types of people.

First, Jesus' life influenced the people closest to Him. This would include family, His disciples, and friends with whom He spent the most time. The New Testament contains numerous verses and even chapters in the Gospels - Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John - where Jesus spends time teaching and explaining His purpose and God's plan to the twelve disciples. For three years as they traveled together, they heard His words, saw the miracles, and observed His interactions with individuals and the crowds. Often they would ask for explanations of a particular parable or for specific instructions as they did when they asked Jesus to teach them to how to pray.

My closest relationships exist within my family. When our children were young, influencing them was a major role in being a parent. We wanted to see our children grow up with a faith in God through Jesus, a love for people, a willingness to work and serve, and values that would be extended to their own families one day. While family is probably my first and greatest place of influence, that same influence must be extended in the workplace, the neighborhood, and in lasting friendships. This area of influence is fairly easy for us to see and agree upon.

A second area of influence we can see in Jesus' life is the contact that He had with individuals as He went from place to place with the disciples. These would include people like the Samaritan woman at the well who was so influenced by Jesus that she told her whole town to "come and see the one who told me everything I ever did." Likewise, more than one person who was blind had their sight restored by Jesus. Their lives were influenced and changed by Jesus.

There are people that we all come across in the course of going through a day. These individuals may be a clerk in a store, a nurse in the hospital, a co-worker from another department, or even a telemarketer. For a brief moment we have the opportunity to influence their lives with a smile, a pleasant greeting, or a brief conversation. Sometimes these moments happen because the other person needs that interaction that will lift their spirit, give them hope, or maybe serve as an introduction to Jesus. Too often we get too busy to pay attention to the people that God places in our daily paths for the purpose of being a momentary influence upon them.

The third group that I see Jesus influencing were the crowds who may have never actually met or seen Jesus. However, the word spread about His teachings and His miracles. By word of mouth they were influenced by someone they had never met. Maybe that was why five thousand people gathered to hear Jesus preach or why the streets were lined with people waving palm branches when He entered Jerusalem.

You and I influence many people when we are unaware that anyone is watching. It is not unusual for a friend to introduce you to one of their friends. Upon meeting, the new acquaintance may say something similar to "I have heard so much about you." That is the moment that you hope your life has had a positive consistency. In our day, social media is also one of those ways we influence a broad spectrum of people we do not know. As we write, speak, and act, we need to be careful about the influence we are sending out that touches so many people.

Additionally, prayer is a means of influencing others. When we intercede for an individual, a people group, or even a nation, we may have no personal contact with any of them. However, in prayer, we are asking the Holy Spirit to influence them in specific ways.

For our influence to stay positive, it must be controlled and directed by the God we trust. Two verses from the Bible help to keep our influence in perspective.

Paul wrote in Philippians 4:13

"I am able to do all things through Christ who strengthens me."

Jesus spoke these words in Matthew 19:26

"But Jesus looked at them and said, 'With men this is

impossible, but with God all things are possible.'"

May our prayer this week be that the influence that flows through our lives be Christ influencing others through us. Have a great week.