If you keep quiet at this time, someone else will help and save the Jewish people, but you and your father’s family will all die. And who knows, you may have been chosen queen for just such a time as this.
Esther 4:14
As we can see by the verse above God has given all of us the ability to influence others which means that we can have an effect on someone’s life.
This young Jewish girl living in a foreign country (Persia) eventually found herself queen of the empire ( just like a fairy story except this is true) when a plot was discovered to destroy all the Jews. Esther was informed by her uncle perhaps God had prepared Esther for this very moment.
Do not withhold good from those who deserve it when it’s in your power to help them.
Proverbs 3:27
In the New Testament, this is taken even further.
When we have the opportunity to help anyone, we should do it.
Galatians 6:10
Esther went to plead for the life of her people and the truth is that everyone has the ability to change the world, maybe not the entire world but the world around them.
This ability can change people we work with, at school, in their homes, in their neighbourhood.
What is this ability we all possess that has the power to change the world around us? It’s called INFLUENCE.
God has given all of us the ability to influence others which means that we can have an effect on someone’s life. The question is, how will we use our influence? We live in a completely different world to the one I grew up in as a child. Today’s world is influenced hugely by the following: Facebook, Messenger, Skype, WhatsApp and Twitter, to name just a few.
Today an item of news can go viral within minutes all around the world.
- How do we use this social media in a positive way?
- Do we use our influence as God says for good?
- Do we use our influence at all?
- Do we use our influence in a negative way?
God has given you the amazing ability to influence the people around you. He gave you this ability because He wanted you to use your influence to do good. But it is up to you; how will you use your influence?
Is this the most famous chocolate advert of all time? It was seen on billboards and enamel signs up and down Britain before the War.
Fry’s first launched Five Boys in 1902, and after the company was brought by Cadbury in 1919, the Birmingham company continued to make Five Boys until 1976.
The five pictures were photographs taken in 1885. The boy was Lindsay Poulton, aged five, and his father and grandfather took the photographs for which Fry’s paid £200.
What was the influence? It was that the boy, in a sailor suit, had five different expressions representing his anticipation and experience of eating the chocolate bar.
Beneath each face was a caption: Desperation, Pacification, Expectation, Acclamation, Realisation.
Was it positive? negative? The one thing Cadbury’s did not do was nothing. They did something.
There was no TV or media apart from this billboard and yet the face of that boy captivated the sale of millions.
So what was Jesus billboard? How did Jesus use his ability to influence? Jesus shared with everyone.
What Jesus shared was that God loves us all no matter what colour, race, education or social status we have. The fact is God sent Jesus to die for all of us so you can all have a relationship with God. The one thing Jesus did not do was nothing in those years before He died. He healed the sick, fed the hungry, gave hope to the hopeless, taught us how to have a relationship with one another (read the sermon on the mount) and yes even told us to pay our taxes.
I believe Jesus Christ to be the most influential person the world has or will ever see and as a follower of Jesus He says to me and all who follow Him “Do likewise”
What a challenging thought.
I leave you with Jesus own words.
Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.
Matthew 5:16