Im reading Gods Gonna Make You Laugh by Noel Jones and there are a lot of points that stick with me.... I wanted to share this one - You are very fortunate if you have family members who believe in you so much they expect you to soar to the highest altitudes. That, unfortunately, is not the norm. Honestly, most family members don’t do it intentionally. They don’t seek to reduce you to their image because they are trying to hurt you. The reason why they do it is because they are inwardly afraid of your becoming more than they are. When you do that, you expose how they have settled for less in life, without your even trying to do so. So they would rather you just stay the same old way you always were—live the same old place, drive the same old car, wear the same old clothes, and die in the same old spot that they refused to let you move away from. Nobody ever liked pioneers. They tend to shake our comfortable places, make us feel we have just settled. The longer you are associated with and surrounded by people who desire to hold you back or that want to keep the same image of you that they’ve always had, the more you will begin to acquiesce to their demands. You will allow them to reshape your life into their image. You will begin to be like the people you hang around and spend time eating and fellowshipping with. That’s why it is so important to me to surround myself with people who believe that I can go forward and fulfill the purposes of God in the earth. I don’t have time for anyone who doesn’t want to go forward, worse yet, who doesn’t want to see me go forward. My association with them will inhibit my growth and development. Never minimize the power of influence. You must be careful to surround yourself with people who will encourage you on your journey, not discourage you. My hanging out with them will cause me to become sympathetic toward their lethargic conditions and shallow vision of life. And the longer I wait, the more I become transformed into their image, not God’s. So I’ve got to get away even though I don’t know where I am going, realizing that as I go forward, I am moving closer to the perfect will of God.
Posted on: Wed, 30 Oct 2013 13:01:37 +0000