Adamant With Lisa BevereSample

Do you want to be popular . . . or do you want to be influential? 

Popularity and influence seem similar, but they’re very different. Popularity requires you to follow the masses or tell them what they want to hear. But influence invites you to stand on truth apart from the crowd.

At its core, truth is not a what, but a who, because Jesus said He is the truth. Jesus also said that God’s Word is truth. The world loves to think of truth as fluctuating and relative, but the truth that is grounded in the person of Jesus and the Word of God never changes. In a world full of opinions, God’s truth leads us to convictions we can build our lives on. 

We must be careful to discern the difference between opinions and convictions. Our world doesn’t need the messiness that comes with numerous opinions. It needs the stability that comes with truth. Let’s not contribute to the noise that distracts and keeps us from looking to Scripture and the Spirit of truth.

Opinions are easy to make and quick to change, but hard to clean up if we’ve been careless in spreading ours around. They can become like litter that defiles both others’ lives and our own. We must carefully guard our words to ensure we are part of the solution to the problems we are anointed to change.

I challenge you to edit your life and edit the words you choose to speak. Be careful about what you read, listen to, say, or post. Do not air your family issues, or the church’s issues, for all the world to see. Yet, at the same time, don’t remain silent about them: Speak to family about family issues. If someone isn’t involved in the problem or solution, don’t unnecessarily involve them. This only makes the problem bigger rather than solving it. 

How is silence about important issues the same as endorsing them? What does it mean to edit your words in such a way that you are part of the solution and not part of the problem?