“… the area of influence God assigned to us, to reach even to you. … our hope is that as your faith increases, our area of influence among you may be greatly enlarged, so that we may preach the gospel in lands beyond you …” 2 Corinthians 10:13-16 ESV
God not only gave us a light to shine, not hide – He gave us specific areas to shine – to influence, to make certain we take advantage of the opportunities. Are you aware of the areas God has given you?
We all have areas of influence that are unique to us. Our families, our neighborhoods, our workplaces or schools, our friends who don’t yet know Jesus are central. Then there are hobby/sports groups, the families of our children’s friends – you can probably add a few of your own. Ask God to help you interact in these environments with eyes open to build relationships and share Jesus instead of being overly cautious and wary. It is easy to go into our unique areas of influence with preconceived notions about who we don’t want to connect with, about setting up boundaries to prevent accidentally starting relationships we don’t want to have. There’s nothing inherently wrong with boundaries, but we need to pray about them to make certain they are truly prompted by God, not our own convenience.
Pray. Ask God to help you gain influence in the areas of opportunity for you. Ask God to help you shine your light every time you are in those places, naturally drawing people to interest in your way and reason for life. As you do that, pray that God will point out specific people within those groups to be special prayer targets for you. Look for extra opportunities for interactions and little conversations.
Be a listener. Honestly, the best winning and influencing policy is not to look for people to talk to, but to look for people to listen to. Listening well is a window to the soul. Influence doesn’t begin by talking about you. It begins by finding out about them. Something as simple as a smile and “That’s a very interesting and detailed tattoo. I bet there’s a story” can unlock the door to a great relationship of growing influence. Think about it. The people who have the greatest influence in your life are the ones you know genuinely care about you and listen to your heart. God wants to greatly enlarge your influence. He’s already given you the areas to do it.
- Pray about your areas. Ask God to give you specific people as your prayer targets for influence in 2026.