How to fish, shoot, hunt, set up a tent, drive a tractor, dig a hole, look people in the eye, properly shake someone’s hand, and hold the door open for a lady. These are just a few of the things my dad taught me while growing up.
But hands down the most important life lesson my dad ever taught me was how to follow Jesus. It has had an eternal impact on my life. It’s one thing I still do to this day.
Deuteronomy 6:6-9 says, “These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.”
I genuinely believe that the most significant impact anyone can have in life is to teach others to write God’s word on their hearts and to follow Jesus.
Imagine what would happen in your home, work, and friendships if you made it your priority to teach, impress, and encourage people to follow Jesus? It would be life-changing! No, scratch that, It would have an eternal impact.
As Christ’s ambassador, he wants to use you to change the lives of the people around you. He wants you to have an eternal impact in this world. Please make no mistake about it. You have a critical mission in this world.
You are “Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.” (2 Corinthians 5:20)
The first step in having an eternal impact is to choose whom you’re going to serve. Every day you wake up, you face the same choice the Israelites did when they met the ultimatum given to them by Joshua.
He told them, “If serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”
I love Joshua’s heart here. He said you do what you want, but as for my home, and me we’re sticking with Jesus. Could that be said of you?
Nothing speaks louder than authentic faith in the face of fake talk. If you’re going to have an eternal impact in this world, you must first choose to serve Jesus for eternity, and you must do it daily. It all starts here.
When you choose to love, serve, and follow Jesus, your life begins to change, and it teaches Jesus to others. Everything about you begins to speak to those who are far from God to reconcile with him. You become a spokesman for his kindness, and that is like a lighthouse in the darkness.
People around the globe stand for things that won’t last, but “this world is fading away, along with everything that people crave. But anyone who does what pleases God will live forever.” (1 John 2:17)
What you stand for will make an impact. The question is, is what you’re standing for making an eternal impact?
