Good morning everyone,

2 Corinthians 10:13-But we will not boast beyond limits, but will boast only with regard to the area of influence God assigned to us, to reach even to you.

It is possible for two Christians to be relatively in the same situation, whether that’s job, family issues, upbringing, etc, and one person have a great influence on the people around them, and the other person have no influence at all. One is living off the "substance" of doing God’s will for their life, while the other has lost confidence that they have anything to offer to effect change.

Sadly that’s how many people think of themselves, Christian or not. The idea that "I’m only one person, how can I change my family, community, society, world…?" Such a mentality is really tragic to hear as a Christian, because what we do have in Christ is hope, not just in the "bye and bye in the sky". But the kind of hope that if willing to diligently obey and walk with God, we can be open to some huge changes first in ourselves and how we see ourselves, then effect the area we’re assigned to!

The apostle Paul understood that he wasn’t called to effect everyone, everywhere directly. He knew God assigned him "an area" of influence, to effect, and hopefully those people then effect others who he wasn’t assigned to directly effect. Unrealistic or small expectations of our "area of influence" is what gets us off track of what we should be focusing on. First ourselves with Christ, then our family who is immediately in our area, and then maybe our influence will begin effecting people who can then inspire others in our communities, jobs, churches, etc. But know your area and know that God has directly assigned you to be salt and light there.

In His Love, Ld