IN THEIR STEPS

For even hereunto were ye called:
because Christ also suffered for us,
leaving us an example, that ye should
follow his steps.
I Peter 2:21

All believers would have to say that Jesus is the priority in our lives as far as being an influence on us. I have an upcoming Sunday school lesson on the subject of “influence” with Jesus being on the top of the list. I realize we've never met Jesus in a physical sense, eye to eye, but we still have met Him through the Word of God. We get a very thorough picture of Him in our Bibles and as we read, we come to know Him more and more. As we go through that process, we should be allowing Him to be the major influence in our lives.

When speaking of spiritual influence in our lives, we tend to reach far back into our lives. I like most can think of Sunday school teachers, pastors, neighbors, etc. who blessed my life. I'm not discounting those dear saints of the past who were faithful to their God-assigned tasks in our early days. However, I'm going through a review of people of influence in my life through the last half of my life.

When reviewing people of influence in my life, my mind quickly went to a lady by the name of Ruth Bartel. When on a church staff, this dear lady walked into our church office area on a rather cold day. She carried a decent size purse and a relatively small suitcase. She was in her 60's as I recall and had a beautiful face with the most beautiful skin. Her hair was neatly combed back and put into a bun at the back of her hairline. She had a radiant smile. Her request was simple: “I would like to talk to the pastor.”

A couple of us smiled at that request for no one just walked into the office and received an immediate session with the pastor because of his busy schedule. He was called in his office, and to our amazement, he asked that she come to his office. He didn't recognize her name and didn't know her. She was from another state. At the end of their session, the pastor came out and asked that she be taken to our church's guest apartment. Someone was assigned to go to the grocery store and get whatever she wanted for the small kitchen in the apartment. We did all we could to make her comfortable.

We learned in short order that the only thing this dear lady wanted was to come to our church, eventually find a small apartment in the area and give her days to prayer for our church. Sounded a little odd. but the pastor was the one who had spoken with her. She was very friendly in a quiet, sweet way, and it wasn't hard to love Mrs. Bartel.

As I came to know her, and made it a point to do so, I came to learn her schedule. She was up in the morning around 4-5:00. She dressed and fixed a very meager breakfast...two pieces of toast, piece of fruit and cup of tea. She then dug into her day. She did the same thing over and over during the day...pray, read Scripture, sing from a hymnbook and pray. Some days, she took a brief nap early afternoon. On one occasion she showed me her prayer list. It was contained at the time in five spiral notebooks full of names (on front and back of sheets). She had names listed of our staff, their spouses and children individually. It was the same of our deacon board, adult choir, ushers, Sunday school personnel, school personnel from K-college, and no telling who else. Mrs. Bartel veered from her schedule only for church services and ladies soul winning on Friday mornings. She was usually in bed by 8:00 in the evening.
 

It was a blessing being her friend. She was often my soul winning partner which gave me even more time to “sit at her feet.” Many folks have been a wonderful influence in my life but that dear lady who just walked into our office that one cold winter day never knew what she meant to me and so many others.

The fact is when we are a godly influence, it's rare we realize it. We feel we're just living life as we usually do. Our influence is shown mostly through our everyday living. We don't see how people observe us. We'll make our share of mistakes, but if our focus is on Jesus, and we follow in His steps, our influence will be taken care of by Him. Any good influence we can be for Jesus is certainly not for our glory but for His. Good influence for for God is not something we can pretend. It will be who we are.

Thank You Father, for saving me and giving me the opportunity to live for and serve You. May I walk and live in the power of Your Spirit. I want Jesus to be seen in me. Thank You for Your goodness in my life. In Jesus precious name...Amen