Be an Influencer by Martin Wiles

The text read, “This is the view from our balcony.”

I was envious. It had been over six years since my wife and I had visited the Great Smokey Mountains of North Carolina and Tennessee. Now our good friends were there for a week enjoying what we craved. The view from their balcony was breathtaking, and I could imagine sitting there snuggled up with a good book and a steaming cup of coffee.

Views from mountainsides are normally fabulous, but those same places that provide the views can also be viewed from below. Riding along mountain roads at night, I can observe lights glowing up and down the mountainside. Like cities on hilltops, they aren’t usually hidden.

Jesus classified his followers as lights of the world and then compared them to cities—or homes, on a hill…or in this case a mountain. You are the light of the world—like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden (Matthew 5:14 NLT).

Light influences darkness by driving it away just as lights from homes or cities high atop mountains provide light that can be seen from miles away. Which reminds me that Jesus wants me to light my world whether it’s large or small. An elderly lady once told me her world wasn’t very large, but I reminded her that God simply wanted her to influence her world and not worry about a world he hadn’t assigned her.

Sin has twisted the minds, actions, and attitudes of all individuals. My light…influence, can aid in rectifying what’s wrong. The ways I do it are as varied as the circumstances God brings or allows into my life.

Learn to see every situation as an occasion to influence someone for God. Light up like a city on a mountain.

Prayer: Eternal God, may our lights shine brightly for You as You have shown brilliantly for us through the substitutionary sacrifice of Your Son.

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