BE LIKE ME

Brethren, I beseech you, be as I am; for I also have become as you are. Galatians 4:12

Influence is the power to have an important effect on someone. If someone influences someone else, they are changing a person or thing in an indirect but important way.

We have all been influenced by other people or movements and not always in a positive way. My parents had the most and earliest influence on me. I accepted what they believed. Later, the influence came from teachers and peers. Those who influence us have significant effect on our lifestyle.

In Galatians 4:12, Paul is asking the Galatian Christians to become like him, and to put themselves in his shoes. He explains that he became like them, and that he knows what they are going through because he has been there too. He asks why they would now throw away the blessing they once felt, and why they would not pay the same deference to him that they once did.

In other words, Paul is asking the Galatian Christians to fully accept their status as free men and women in as he, Paul, has fully abandoned his own status as a man “under the law” to live free in Christ himself.

Those who influence us can control us and control our behavior, so we need to be cautious as to who gets to us. Do we listen to the wrong people or wrong movements in this liberal anti-Christ world?

How do people influence us? We soak up attitudes, ideas and characteristics like a sponge from the people around us without realizing it. We absorb, assimilate and instinctively mirror behaviors. We adopt mindsets that we understand to be beneficial.

People influence others through political savvy, self-promotion, building trust and networking. The goal is to influence and change others. Sensory data is interpreted according to our cultural learnings long before our ability to think about and understand our culture develops.

As Christians, we need to be sure, both in and out of the church, by whom or what we are influenced. Like Paul, Jesus calls us to be influenced by and emulate Him.

Think about it. By whom are you influenced. Who is your number one influencer?

by John Grant
used by permission

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The post BE LIKE ME can be found at Thoughts about God.