Living with Influence

Living with Influence

For five weekends I've shared with you the lives of people who have influenced my life. Some of the relationships go back more than forty years; they seem as real as yesterday. I'm grateful for each of these people and so many more that remain unnamed. Each person who has influenced my life for the Kingdom is a gift from God, placed in my life by His design for my good.

What about you and me? Who do we influence today? Who are the people in your life and mine that live more like Jesus because they know us and have lived under our influence? Not a single one of us lives in isolation. As each one of us who read FREEDOM FIGHTER live our lives for Jesus, someone watches and can grow in their walk with the Lord.

So much of life is routine that we often live without thinking. Living without thinking leads to carelessness. Carelessness will prevent us from living with influence. Those who live with influence live intentionally. They live with purpose and forethought. Living with influence is one more area of life that requires choices. If my life will have influence in other people, it will only happen because I choose to live as a person of influence.

Here's the deal! Unless Jesus comes back, another generation will follow us. Will someone write a FREEDOM FIGHTER remembering the influence we had on his or her life? Will someone share a testimony that speaks well of our memory because of some influence we had in their life? Just as we choose to avoid addictions and choose to pursue victory, we can choose to live as people of influence.

I'm sure you have people of influence in your life. If you can, let them know you appreciate them. If you can't speak with them, thank God for their influence. Ask Him to help you each day to choose the way of godly influence. You just don't know whose life or how many lives you may touch.

Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice. And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another even as Christ forgave you. (Ephesians 4:29-32)

(Pastor John Strain - First Baptist of Toms River)

Great Quote: While it may break the heart of a wise parent, they realize that it is not love to shelter a child from every adversity and all hardship. It is through occasional adversity and the winds of life blowing against us that we develop the muscles to stand strong and steady, gaining our moral balance. Katherine Walden