Influence

“In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.” (Matthew 5:16)

I was talking to a friend, Warren, at church recently and he shared with me an image relating to influence. I wrote a blog post a few years ago titled, “The Circle of Influence” which you can read at: www.roadrevelations.org/2013/04/circle-of-influence. It talks about the people in our “circle” who we can have an influence on. That would be family, friends, church people, co-workers and people we regularly meet during our day. The blog post also mentions people who may not be in our “circle” but may be looking in to see what we are doing. They could be influenced as well. I got another thought about our circle recently that those in our circle can influence us too. We are in the center of our circle making an influence on those with us but, as we’re in the middle, our circle members are influencing us too.

“Live clean, innocent lives as children of God, shining like bright lights in a world full of crooked and perverse people.” (Philippians 2:15). People are watching, especially if they know we’re Christians. Now, the idea we get from Warren’s image is that, as we go about shining our light, others will be affected and influenced. As we get closer to them, our light will shine on them causing them to want a light like ours. That’s Jesus! Then we can share the good news. So, let’s be aware of our light and our circles.