Impact or impress
As you think back over your life, who has had the greatest impact on your life? Was it your father, or about your mother, maybe someone you are working with, was it your pastor or your teacher? But somebody has impacted your life infact a lot of people have impacted your life. Your character, your conversation, your conduct have all been somehow and someway been impacted by the people around you or somebody who has contributed something over your life.
When you think about that, who are you impacting by your life? There is a difference between an impression and an impact. Many people love to be impressed and many people love to impress others. They spent a lot of money doing that for example by the way they dress, and what they drive, where they live and where they work and their education; all these things some people do use to impress other people and they love to talk about it and those of us who hear them do not love to listen very long because of simple reason we know they are trying to impress us.
Impression is one thing, impact is something else. Infact when you think about an impact, an impact speaks of collision that maybe man or woman you fell in love with in marriage. Sometimes it is a gentle collision sometimes it is a tremendously difficult collision. The truth is all of us have been impacted by the people and God wants all of us to impact other folks. Somebody will say how can I impact other people? I don’t have education, I don’t have money, and I don’t have all these things.
We all have an obligation to impact the people around us. Jesus made a very clear statement in Matthew 5:13 that “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men. You are the light of the world…..let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.” He said you are the salt of the earth and you are the light of the world. His intent is that after you have received Him as Lord and Saviour in your life then you have a commission, a responsibility to impact, to make a difference in the lives of people around us be it where you’re working, living etc. This then implies just the same way salt impacts food and light impacts darkness then also we all have an obligation to make an impact. Of course there is a collision either gentle or awesome. When Jesus came to any scene it didn’t take long for it to happen but He the Pharisees and the Sadducees had a collision, He awesomely impacted them to realize they are going to kill Him or something going to happen.
Every single of us has an obligation to impact the people about us and parents do have an awesome obligation to impact their children. Certainly we all have a personal responsibility to impact the people around us. Whose life are you impacting? That is whose life is being impacted by you; being changed by you, being affected by you, being influenced by you in a strong way so that meeting you, knowing you and watching you is saying something to them they just can’t quite escape. That is the way Jesus intended for the whole world to know about Him.
As you live out your life, you are to impact the people around you with the truth that you know not impress them. They may not like what they see, they may not like what they hear but often times it is what they don’t like that finally gets to them. So ask yourself this question; whose life is my life impacting and who is it that has impacted me the most?
Excerpts from sermon by Dr. Charles Stanley [www.intouch.org]
When you think about that, who are you impacting by your life? There is a difference between an impression and an impact. Many people love to be impressed and many people love to impress others. They spent a lot of money doing that for example by the way they dress, and what they drive, where they live and where they work and their education; all these things some people do use to impress other people and they love to talk about it and those of us who hear them do not love to listen very long because of simple reason we know they are trying to impress us.
Impression is one thing, impact is something else. Infact when you think about an impact, an impact speaks of collision that maybe man or woman you fell in love with in marriage. Sometimes it is a gentle collision sometimes it is a tremendously difficult collision. The truth is all of us have been impacted by the people and God wants all of us to impact other folks. Somebody will say how can I impact other people? I don’t have education, I don’t have money, and I don’t have all these things.
We all have an obligation to impact the people around us. Jesus made a very clear statement in Matthew 5:13 that “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men. You are the light of the world…..let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.” He said you are the salt of the earth and you are the light of the world. His intent is that after you have received Him as Lord and Saviour in your life then you have a commission, a responsibility to impact, to make a difference in the lives of people around us be it where you’re working, living etc. This then implies just the same way salt impacts food and light impacts darkness then also we all have an obligation to make an impact. Of course there is a collision either gentle or awesome. When Jesus came to any scene it didn’t take long for it to happen but He the Pharisees and the Sadducees had a collision, He awesomely impacted them to realize they are going to kill Him or something going to happen.
Every single of us has an obligation to impact the people about us and parents do have an awesome obligation to impact their children. Certainly we all have a personal responsibility to impact the people around us. Whose life are you impacting? That is whose life is being impacted by you; being changed by you, being affected by you, being influenced by you in a strong way so that meeting you, knowing you and watching you is saying something to them they just can’t quite escape. That is the way Jesus intended for the whole world to know about Him.
As you live out your life, you are to impact the people around you with the truth that you know not impress them. They may not like what they see, they may not like what they hear but often times it is what they don’t like that finally gets to them. So ask yourself this question; whose life is my life impacting and who is it that has impacted me the most?
Excerpts from sermon by Dr. Charles Stanley [www.intouch.org]
wow this i like i like......
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