What was it like for you the first time you made your way to the end of the highest diving board? Did you leap off uninhibitedly? Or were you like me: so afraid to swim, that I turned around, climbed down the ladder, escaping back to safe ground?
I know—you who are the brave ones were never challenged by the height of that board or the depth of those waters. But I was paralyzed. My fears were much bigger than my confidence.
My lack of confidence overpowered the TRUE FACT that, even if I jumped and could not swim, the instructor was right there watching me, waiting with a life preserver, or would even jump in and rescue me if I failed to grab the life preserver. However, those facts were not big enough to conquer my fear of the water.
Consequently, I never passed beginner swimming lessons. Ever.
A DREADFUL DAY
I was too afraid of the deep water. It wasn’t until I was a freshman in college that I actually swam longer than I could hold one breath. Our first weekend there, a bunch of my new friends decided to spend the day at the lake. Upon arrival, everyone piled out of our cars and to my surprise, they all broke into a run, shedding cover-ups on the way, straight into the water.
Before I knew it, they were all swimming toward a pier in the distance. In the deep water where you could not see the bottom. They were just all swimming…getting there…like a race to the finish.
What could I do? Stay ashore by myself? Miss out on the fun? No. I HAD to swim with them. Well, sort of, but not really. That fear of the water was yelling in my head.
But my FOMO (fear of missing out) was yelling louder, so I took off, last one in, held my breath and started kicking. It’s really hard to keep your head above water for 100 yards. And you swim really slow. And when you realize you’re at the point of no return, you also realize all your friends are just standing on the pier yelling, “Come on, Nina, you can do it! Keep swimming! You’re almost here…”
HOW EMBARRASSING….
Eventually, I made it to the pier. We played there for a while and had so much fun…until time to go. Then the sharp realization hit: “I have to swim back to shore. Dear God, Help Me.” They all dove in, I jumped in, recovered, then began to swim from behind.
Instant repeat while they waited for me on the shore. I’m forever grateful they didn’t leave without me. Attention spans are not very long for college freshmen!
WHAT HELD ME BACK
Looking back, I realize I knew how to swim, but I was so afraid of the water, rather than combining relaxed arm and leg movement with rhythmic breathing, I would fight the water and struggle against its natural buoyancy of support.
I think, when it comes to influence, many of us are like I was with swimming. Either we fail to believe we have any influence, or our fears are so large they overpower any confidence about how our strengths might be influential to the other people around us.
3 RIVETING TRUTHS THAT WILL SET YOU FREE
A full understanding of these 3 Truths will compel every Christ-follower to intentionally consider, then shine brightly in our personal spheres of Influence.
Truth #1: God Draws People to Himself ~ You Are Loved by God
Sometimes we forget that God’s deepest desire is for every human being to enter into friendship with Him. God being love, He is constantly drawing people to Himself, and one of the ways He does this is by using people to influence and attract other people toward that spiritual friendship.
Let’s relieve some pressure here; maybe even some unrealistic expectations. The pressure is not on you and me to draw others to God. It is our privilege to attract people to God, even show them the ways of God, but it is God Himself who does the drawing, who plants the spiritual desire.
So let’s stop putting pressure on ourselves about leading other people to God. When you and I are fully-devoted Christ-followers, God will use us to attract others to Himself. God will make Himself known, and the other person decides to follow or reject Him.
Here’s the Truth: When a person chooses to enter into relationship with God, God responds by gracing that person with gifts and strengths that will be used to influence others to make their own choice about friendship with Him. So when any of us chooses Christ, a by-product of His love is that He empowers us with gifts that influence.
The power of influence is from God. The participation to participate is up to each individual.
Where the Bible Says It: John 6:39-40, 44-45; 2 Peter 3:9; Romans 12:6-8; Ephesians 4:4-6
Truth #2: The Gifts and the Calling of God are Irrevocable ~ You are Secure with God
It’s a fact: you’ll never hear God saying, “Oh–never mind”.
God has an endless desire for friendship with you. And the minute you choose to accept His love, God’s gifts come to you from the Most High Giver. With God being Creator, He is Supreme Being, bearing the highest authority. No one can override God’s gifting to His children. The gifts are there, whether we choose to participate or not.
How loving of Him—we get to choose whether we use them, but the gifts are there, regardless. Some would consider this lavish abundance.
Where the Bible Says It: Ephesians 1:18-21; Romans 11:29; 2 Timothy 1:9; 1 John 3:1
Truth #3: You Have Stability in Your Gift from God ~ You are Strong in God
This is where you can operate in complete confidence.
Have you looked at 2 Peter 1:3-4 lately? Peter lays out the understanding that believers in Christ have already been given everything we need in order to participate with the gift God has placed within us.
Picture this: when you placed your faith in Jesus Christ, God poured a special endowment into you. (You can read about this in 1 John 2:20.)
Remember how I “couldn’t swim” but I eventually made it to that pier? The truth is, I could swim. I had been taught. I had the physical strength to swim, the water had the buoyancy to support my body—but it required me to put what was inside me into practice—I had to participate.
The gifting God has placed in you is ready and available right here, right now. If it is not fully developed, what needs to happen in order to increase that skill? Do you need some positive peer pressure, urging you to swim on? Do you need to throw yourself into the deep waters, spread your arms, kick your legs, and let God carry you through to the pier?
Side Note: over time, you may be happy to know I have developed the skill of swimming. Sometimes, that phobia creeps up and I have to push through, using what I know to be true: I possess the skills to swim. When that happens, my participation with the skills overrides the phobia of what could happen in those deep waters.
DO YOU KNOW YOUR GIFTS?
Here is where you find stability: as mentioned above, scripture speaks with a promise in 1 John 2:20-21. John trains us that this endowment from God increases our understanding of life with Him. He says, “You have an anointing from the Holy One and you all know…” This use of the word “know” means “to be skilled in”.
When we look for the gifting of God, He opens our eyes. And here is not the only place this promise is written. Check out John 14:26, where Jesus says, “….when the Father sends the Spirit of Holiness, the One like me who sets you free, he will teach you all things in my name. And he will inspire you to remember every word that I’ve told you.”
There is a connection between Peter’s teaching and John’s teaching about knowledge, “being skilled in”. John says you will know the truth because the Holy Spirit will teach you. Peter says God has already given us everything we need pertaining to life and godliness through our knowing Christ’s promises.
Are you wondering how to identify your gift from God? Are you curious about ways to develop what God has placed within you? Knowledge is the key. Peter and John both wrote from their own experiences: the more deeply they got to know Jesus, the stronger their gifts became. It was the same for all the disciples of Christ, and it is the same for us today…same God, same purpose, same promises.
Even when our gifts are still being developed, we can stand strong, on stable footing, knowing our gifting is from God, and assured He will develop it as we continue to participate with the work He has already begun in us.
Where the Bible Says It: 1 John 2:20; 2 Peter 1:2-3; John 14:26; Philippians 1:6; 2:13
WHAT DOES PARTICIPATION LOOK LIKE?
Are you wondering what gifts God has placed within you? Pray to Him, ask Him, as your Friend, to show you how He’s gifted you.
If you are new to life with God, get to know Jesus up close and personal. Open your Bible and read John’s stories about Jesus. You’ll see Jesus’ personality, His character, His heart for God and people. And Jesus never changes. He is the same for us as He was for Peter and John.
If you are seasoned in your friendship with God, take a close look at your relationship with Jesus. In your evaluation, you will see that a careful review of those familiar stories reveals fresh truths that remind us to match our thinking to Jesus’ way of thinking, which leads to rich living, and reflects His influence into that sphere where He has personally placed you.
TRUTH IN ACTION
Who is standing in your sphere? Don’t let that scare you! As mentioned in the previous article, the bottom-line purpose of Christ-based, life-giving influence is to demonstrate the character of Jesus where you are—right here, right now. Read last week’s blog here.
Knowledge-based influence wears a different face on different folks. And that’s a good thing because people are so different. What reaches one may not necessarily influence another. This is why we need to throw out the Comparison Game. Just as your face has its own individual features, your influence will look different form others’…and God uses those different strokes for different folks :)
I love the way Mark Cook, guest writer for The Denison Forum, rightly describes what Christian influence looks like:
“What this means in practice is that we need more than mere emotional or social intelligence. As is fairly obvious from the state of our current affairs, what our broken world does not need is simply better knowledge acquisition. What we need instead are concrete, living examples of goodness, truth, and beauty. That is where we can begin to make a difference, because as Christians we believe that you can only truly model those things with a heart changed by God, in Christ, through the power of the Holy Spirit.” To read Mark Cook’s entire article, click here
That’s what God does with our knowledge: by His power, God transforms what we know to be true into attractive influence that points to the life-giving message of Christ. In this world that increasingly threatens to dehumanize and disconnect us from others, we Christians who know the life-giving message of Christ can constantly learn from Jesus how to reflect the love of God in our personal spheres of influence.
Which of the 3 Truths rivet you to brightly reflect the love of God in your sphere of influence? Share your comments below.
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