By Larry Stover

Stover lives in Valley Grande and is pastor at Praise Park Ministries Church of the Nazarene.

There are many needs in the church today. One that stands out to me is a need for men and women to take a stand for their faith in Jesus Christ. Too many have become careless in their walk with God. They have failed to give spiritual leadership in their homes; their devotional times of prayer and Bible reading area hardly on the radar; and, countless activities have replaced the need or desire to be in the house of God.

What has happened? I would seriously question whether I was a true believer if I did not want to know more of Christ. More than this, I would seriously question my salvation if I did not experience God’s presence occasionally.

Over the past few weeks, I have been enjoying a personal devotional time in Psalm one. The first few verses are directed to individuals who want to have a more intense and enjoyable relationship with God.

From the NIV, they read as follows, “Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers, but whose delight is in the law of the LORD, and who meditates on his law day and night. That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither— whatever they do prospers.”

My first observation is that all of us have been influenced during our lives by people, events or things, and that we have also influenced others by our actions, attitudes and speech. It seems obvious to me that we are either accepting and/or giving godly or ungodly influence.

If I seek counsel from the ungodly, confer with the ungodly, or identify with the ungodly, I’m asking for trouble. When I hang out with people who are mocking God, and cracking jokes about Christians, I will join them before long. In doing so, I will have lost my chance of being a godly influence on those people. But the worst case scenario is that I will destroy my relationship with God and my life will no longer reflect Jesus Christ to a world desperately needing to experience His truth.

The flip side of this is exciting to me. The blessed individual will surround himself or herself with Godly influence. Those individuals will do that by reading and studying the Word of God. When you get to the place that you delight in reading the Bible it will be because you delight in your relationship with Jesus Christ.

Two of my spiritual goals for believers this year include, “Falling in love with Jesus all over again,” and, “falling in love with His church all over again.”

I have been praying for Christians in Dallas County to grasp a new hunger for His Word this year. I have noticed that when a believer’s appetite for the Lord and His Word become dull, it is the result of too much ungodly influence by the people we hang around with.

We need to do more than just read the Bible. Many passages need to get into our daily thinking so we can shape our minds into the “mind of Christ.” Countless truths need to become internalized, and verses need to be memorized or at least the contents become so familiar that they become the foundation for our life.

The result will be that we will be like that tree planted by rivers of water. We will be continually refreshed and nourished. Spiritual fruit will be produced as we positively influence others. We will be strong in the Lord, able to withstand the influence of this world. Most of all, it will make life “Simply Beautiful.”