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Chapter 15: "How to Become an Influencer"

This chapter has been shortened for the Bible app

Proverbs 27:17 says, “Iron sharpens iron, so one friend sharpens another.”

Today as I scroll through social media, I see about eight advertisements in a row for how to become an influencer, and who wouldn’t want to be one? You get free stuff, may even get paid, and then review it online for your audience to see; it sounds like a pretty sweet deal. Even before social media, people wanted to influence others on a grand scale, maybe as professional athletes or famous actors, and have their faces on a cereal box. There is nothing wrong with wanting to influence the world in some way, in fact, it can be a beautiful thing. What is dangerous is thinking you need to have your face on a billboard to do so, have 50,000 followers, or speak in front of thousands of people. You may stumble into the mindset that you need to act on a global scale to mean anything.

We believe if we do not have X number of followers, we cannot influence. That is not true on any level. You are an influencer to everyone that comes into your life. Think back to a time when you encountered someone who was extremely rude to you. How long did that affect you? Do you still get mad every time you think about it? That person had influence over you and may still. That is why scripture says one man can sharpen another. People can make each other better, and people can make each other worse. 1 Corinthians 15:33 says, “Do not be misled: “Bad company corrupts good character.” Paul refers to the Corinthian people who had become indifferent to their environment. They allowed others to influence them, and Paul warned against this because he knew the power people could have in our lives.

In the book of Judges, we learn about a man named Samson who was given extreme strength from God to defeat the enemies of Israel, the Philistines. He was so strong he even defeated 1,000 men by himself with nothing but the jawbone of a donkey. However, he did have specific rules he had to follow to stay strong, and for the majority of his life, he kept those rules. Those rules included never cutting his hair and never eating unclean food. Unfortunately, Samson made some terrible choices when it came to his friends. He even became friends with the enemy army and fell in love with Delilah, who was secretly working for the Philistine army. Although Samson had a lot of strength, he did not have much wisdom with whom he surrounded himself. Delilah eventually tricked him into telling her his secret weakness, and with that, the enemy cut his hair, and he lost his strength. They gouged out his eyes, captured him, and tied him to the city. Now, in the end, God gave him one more push for strength, and he pulled down the temple pillars to kill, along with himself, more Philistines than he had ever defeated before.

The story did not have to end with Samson losing his strength and life. If Samson had surrounded himself with godly people, he might have known Delilah was a big mistake. Instead, he surrounded himself with the wrong people, and his judgment became cloudy. We can learn from his story now and ask ourselves, are the people influencing us wise? Loving? Christlike? Are we that way to the people we encounter? Our influence matters. I would argue that our influence matters more than the social media influencers or celebrities regarding the people in our lives.

You were the one there for them at 2 am during a breakup.

You are the one they come to when they need life advice.

You are the one they call when they need a friend.

You are the one they confide in when they find out they have had their third miscarriage.

They trust you, know you, and love you.

Our enemy would like you to think your platform is not big enough to matter when in truth, your platform consists of the people you see every day, whether in person or online. Your platform is vast, even if that audience is mainly your family and one or two close friends. Your platform has a huge kingdom impact, which we may not be able to see in this life.

God has purposefully placed people in your life for a reason; we were meant to live in a community of people that will help us be the people God has created us to be. If you find that you are the one being influenced poorly and not you influencing righteously, then it may be time to reevaluate some friendships and establish limitations. Don’t lose the strength God has given you as Samson did. Please take it as a cautionary tale for who influences you.