I’ve recently heard of 3 faithful Christians who have left the church. One went from being a preacher to being an atheist. One went from being a preacher to promoting false teaching. The other went from being a faithful Christian woman to committing to homosexuality. It breaks my heart to see once strong Christians, turn from God. When I examine each of these situations, I can see how they have been influenced by others. The world we live in is full of various kinds of influences. Sadly, the world we live in is mostly BAD influences. Notice a few Bible verses that talk about influence:

“He who walks with the wise men will be wise, but the companion of fools will suffer harm.” (Proverbs 13:20)
“Do not be deceived, bad company corrupts good morals.” (1 Corinthians 15:33)

Christians are not immune to bad influences. We don’t have a special barrier around us that enables to surround ourselves with bad influences. My fear for many in the church is that we have grown comfortable being surrounding by people who will persuade us to turn from God. Even more so in the age of the internet and social media! With these things at our fingertips, with just the click of a button we can be negatively influenced by the world around us.

As these verses above reveal, the people we allow to influence us can impact our Christianity. We have to work extra hard to fill our minds and hearts with GOOD influences so that we can stand against the evil ones. This week, try to be aware of the kind of influences you are taking in. Wether its the people your around, the videos you watch, or the people you communicate with online. Be mindful of what is filling your sphere of influence.

“Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.” (Philippians 4:8)

— Kolton Ballance