Your Spiritual Walk Affects Others 

Recently I drove through part of a neighborhood I had not been in for a while. I was struck by how its appearance had deteriorated since the last time I had been there. There were severely overgrown yards. Some of the houses showed the need for major repairs as windows were missing or shutters were precariously hanging down. A couple of homes appeared to be abandoned. It was concerning to see a once-vibrant neighborhood sink into such a state of neglect.

The cause for such a negative transformation may vary. It may have begun with one homeowner’s carelessness or with someone experiencing a financial loss that resulted in the abandonment of their home. When one property goes downhill, others around it often tend to follow suit. It can serve as a good reminder to us that what we do, or fail to do, can have an impact on those around us. When I was invited to give the invocation at a recent county Board of Commissioners’ meeting, one request I felt led to pray was that the Lord would help us all to work together to make our community a better place to live, work, and raise our families. It takes all of us working together to make that happen. If any of us falter, it can adversely affect those around us.

The same holds true not just in taking care of our property but in how we live as followers of Jesus. If we start neglecting our relationship with the Lord, it is going to show up in various ways in our lives. If we get careless in maintaining some of the spiritual disciplines that help us maintain a close walk with the Lord, we will find deterioration setting in. If we let other activities crowd out the priorities of Bible reading, prayer, church attendance, Christian fellowship, and meaningful service, the results will become evident in our lives. Weeds of sin will become more prominent in our landscape, choking out the Christlike virtues. Our shelter from the dangers and evils in the world will spring leaks and fall apart, not providing the warmth and protection it once did. Additionally, as our own spiritual home deteriorates, we can have a negative influence on those around us. Jesus spoke about the positive impact we should have on our world as being light and salt. But He added that if the salt has lost its flavor, it is worthless. If we lose our spiritual saltiness or our light in Christ, we are worse than worthless. It is not simply that we fail to be a good influence or that we are irrelevant. We can have a bad effect on those around us. We can drag them down with us.

Your family can reap the rewards of your vital, growing relationship with Christ, or they can suffer the repercussions of your waning walk with Him. Your church can be infected with your fervor for Jesus, or your spiritual apathy can keep your church mired in meaningless rituals and tired worship. Your neighbors and community could be blessed as you seek to fervently serve the Lord and be a help to others, or they could suffer as you fail to answer God’s call to lovingly minister to a lost and hurting world.

Let’s not allow our relationship with Jesus to fall into disrepair. Such vigilance isn’t just for our sake. It is also for the good of our family, friends, neighbors, fellow believers, and community. The people around you need you to be faithful in following the Lord. You and your walk with Jesus are going to influence them one way or the other.