People of Influence

Recently Billy Graham died at age 99. Many of my Facebook friends mentioned they came to Christ through one of his crusades, many others gave tribute to this North Carolina pastor who took his evangelizing crusades around the country and the globe. He achieved a REACH unlike any other evangelist, serving as a counselor or minister to a dozen U.S. presidents. He preached to an estimated 215 million people in 185 countries around the world during his life, and his message reached millions more through television, radio and internet. I remember as if it were yesterday watching on a black and white television with my grandparents in Missouri, a televised Billy Graham Crusade some 50 years ago. My sister gave her life to Christ while watching him preach and I followed a few weeks later. This next week I will be teaching on the VALUE OF INFLUENCE. We will be looking at the life of Esther and how God put her in the right place at the right time to influence a king and spare thousands of lives. Our spheres of influence might not involve anything nearly as significant as Esther, or Billy Graham, but we EACH have been put where we are and given the position we have specifically “for such a time as this” (Esther 4:14). The bottom line is we are ALL people of influence. Everything we SAY and everything we DO has the POTENTIAL to influence and affect those around us either in a positive or negative way. We even have the compacity to influence those we do not know well or at all. Who are you influencing at this moment? Are you influencing them with the right attitudes and actions? Together, let’s choose to be an EFFECTIVE person of influence. Let’s IMPLEMENT the following suggestions to ENRICH our impact on others. • Seek the Lord above all else (Luke 12:31). When we SEEK God, we enable Him to reveal to us what He wants us to do and who He wants us to become. • Let God transform the way we think (Romans 12:2). Remember that our thoughts become actions. Actions become habits. Habits become our destiny. Our ABILITY to influence others is dependent on who we think we are and how we live. • Let our light shine (Matthew 5:13-16). GIVE generously of our time to others. Let them know we care. Be friendly and transparent. Get to know them. • Become a person of prayer (1 Thessalonians 5:17). One of the MOST important habits a person of influence can possess is being a person of prayer. Jesus made time for prayer. How much more should we make prayer a priority. “We can be tired, weary, and emotionally distraught, but after spending time alone with God, we find that He injects into our bodies energy, power and strength.” – Charles Stanley Every one of us influences people every day. Let’s POSITIVELY influence others through our words, choices, behavior, and character. Jesus said, “You’re here to be light, bringing out the God-colors in the world. God is not a secret to be kept. We’re going public with this, as public as a city on a hill. If I make you light-bearers, you don’t think I’m going to hide you under a bucket, do you? I’m putting you on a light stand. Now that I’ve put you there on a hilltop, on a light stand—SHINE! Keep open house; be generous with your lives. By opening up to others, you’ll prompt people to open up with God, this generous Father in heaven.” Matthew 5:14-16 MSG Blessings, Cindy