Who is Influencing You?

Every day we get thousands of messages telling us which way to go, what to buy and how to be happy. In the video series the "The Truth Project" they reported that we receive 60,000 audio and visual messages a day. In his book ReCreate, Ron Luce estimates that by the time that a student reaches 18 years of age they will have 75,600 minutes of school, 224,640 minutes of media and 2,002 minutes with a serious conversation with their parents. That means a parent only spends 3.5 minutes a week in serious conversation with their child while there is 72 hours of media each week received by their child.

1 Thessalonians 5:5-6 (New International Version)
5You are all sons of the light and sons of the day. We do not belong to the night or to the darkness. 6So then, let us not be like others, who are asleep, but let us be alert and self-controlled.

Have we fallen asleep? Have we bought into lies and do not even realize it because we have just bought into what we have been taught as truth? Have we heard the same messages over and over again that are not of God but we have bought into them because we heard them so many times? Knowing what we believe is important but also being alert is just as important. We can no longer sit back and listen to all the media messages without filtering them through the Bible. If we do then we will be lulled to sleep and headed on a collision course without even realizing it.

What happens is we become passengers on this road of life. Since the path is long we fall asleep trusting where we are headed by the one driving. Because the driver does not drive erratically we stay asleep.The driver heads off course just a little bit and before we know it we are not where we intended to be. This is how it is if we do not wake up and look at the things we believe and why we believe them.

What things do you believe that do not match with what the Bible says? What areas in life have you fallen asleep? What course adjustments will you need to make in order to get back on track? The first step is to wake up and realize you are being influenced.