Two Areas of Influence in Our Lives
Books We Read
Two big areas that we get influence in our life—number one, the books we read. What does the average American read? Somewhere around two, maybe less than two books a year, and the truth is, when you start thinking about books you start thinking about the whole social media, online world—we’re getting bombarded with information, and what you put in is what comes out.
A great verse of Scripture to ponder, even right now, is Psa 119:9–11: “Thy Word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against Thee.” I wonder.… I wonder how many people really, truly spend ten minutes a day or more in prayer and/or Bible study, and I wonder if you were able to break all that up, how it would break out by age group. You’d probably find the older generation are the ones who tend to spend more time in prayer and/or Bible study every day. The younger generation [is] getting blitzed, through social media, innuendo about marriage, about sexuality, about priorities, and more. Just think about it and start thinking about, then, the level of influence in a person’s life coming from the church, and you start understanding why we’re in such a dilemma.
People with Whom You Spend Time
The second area that you’re influenced by are the people you spend time with. You think I cared about who my daughter, Megan, or my son, Zach, hung out with when they were growing up? Of course. You, I’m sure, care about who your kids hang out with—why?—because we know, “Show me your friends and I’ll show you your future.” You’re influenced by your peer group. It does matter. So, as we look at life and the level of influence, maybe we need to start thinking about, at another level, who and what we’re doing in our life.
I love what Andy Andrews wrote about this: He said, maybe we need to get to a place when it comes to influence in our life, get sick of the at-least-they-accept-me-for-who-I-am crowd, and start reaching out and bringing into our life true friends. There’s a great verse that says, “Faithful”—by the way—“are the wounds of a friend.” Who do you have in your life? Who’s bringing influence to you?
Meme by Bro. Choices
Bro. Good Ground
Live Steaming
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