Psalm 118:21 NLT
I thank you
for answering my prayer and giving me victory!
Each day there are people who come in and out of our lives
that God intends for us to learn from and to influence. We are influenced by people, and we influence
people.
Years ago I heard an analogy that has stuck with me:
Christians are to be a thermostat and not a thermometer. A thermometer tells you the temperature of something
whereas a thermostat sets the temperature.
As we serve people we can influence them for Christ and help
them be stronger and better. That’s kind
of like a thermostat. In turn we can
also influence people in a very negative way.
The choice is ours. Have you
noticed that influence? Have you noticed
how you deal with people and the results of your actions? The results are real.
The people that come through my life are part of God’s plan
for our lives. I know that I have
written about a similar subject in the past few weeks, but I would like for us
to take a look at the people who walk through our lives today. We can and must plan to influence them for
Christ. We ought to plan to leave a mark
on these people for God and to leave them better than they were before we were
together.
To help people be better we have to give them what we
have. If you have lots of money, it is
easy to give people money, but many of us have little money to share. What we who follow Christ do have is
victory. We have strength beyond
ourselves.
That is how we can walk into a situation with lots of
suffering and offer hope. It is how we
can deal with sorrow and shed a bit of light on what seems like darkness. This is when we can see through an awful
situation all the way till there is a good outcome because God did something
good, something that no one else could have done.
Who are those people who have influenced you? It might be the person that walks in to your
life and begins to tell you the story of what God is doing in their lives. Their story makes you smile and get
excited. This might be the situation
where you learned of tragedy, yet in the midst of pain there is someone who
holds on to you or allows you to see the light that only God can give. It is often the person who is thinking
different or who is praying hard for you.
Who are these people?
They are the ones sensitive to what God is doing, and they are helping
others see and feel God. That’s the
person that I want and strive to be. Are
you that person?
Psalm 40:2 NLT
He lifted me out of the pit of despair,
out of the mud and the mire. He set my feet on solid ground and steadied me as
I walked along.
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