Holding Influence with Humility
Today’s devotional
Someone may learn from you before you think of yourself as a mentor. A colleague notices how you admit an error. A child hears your tone when plans change. A friend watches the way you receive a difficult question. Influence often begins within shared life, through repeated actions whose importance is easy to overlook.
Paul remembers his relationship with the Thessalonian believers through images of tender care and encouragement. He describes sharing his own life along with the good news. The passage gives personal warmth a place within faithful guidance. It also gives that guidance a purpose beyond the guide: people are encouraged to live in a manner worthy of the God who calls them.
First Peter directs leaders to care by example instead of domination. This distinction matters wherever another person trusts our judgment. We can offer experience without claiming ownership of their decisions. We can ask a patient question without requiring the answer we prefer. When we make a mistake, an honest apology can teach something that an appearance of perfection never could.
Consider the influence already present in your relationships. What do people learn from your response to disagreement, uncertainty, or a boundary? Healthy mentoring includes clear limits on time, responsibility, and expertise. It welcomes other sources of support and allows the person being guided to become less dependent. You do not need to become indispensable for your care to matter. Ask Christ to keep your attention on the person entrusted to your company rather than the importance of your role. A faithful guide makes room for another person to grow in wisdom, courage, and responsibility before God.
Adapted from Chapter 18: Mentoring in The Formative Gift of Gathering by Dr. R. C. Titus.
Read the Scripture
Open each passage and read slowly. Notice what these words reveal about God and the life before you.
1 Thessalonians 2:7-12 · WEBU
7But we were gentle among you, like a nursing mother cherishes her own children.
8Even so, affectionately longing for you, we were well pleased to impart to you not the Good News of God only, but also our own souls, because you had become very dear to us.
9For you remember, brothers, our labor and travail; for working night and day, that we might not burden any of you, we preached to you the Good News of God.
10You are witnesses with God how holy, righteously, and blamelessly we behaved ourselves toward you who believe.
11As you know, we exhorted, comforted, and implored every one of you, as a father does his own children,
12to the end that you should walk worthily of God, who calls you into his own Kingdom and glory.
1 Peter 5:2-3 · WEBU
2shepherd the flock of God which is among you, exercising the oversight, not under compulsion, but voluntarily; not for dishonest gain, but willingly;
3not as lording it over those entrusted to you, but making yourselves examples to the flock.
Pause and respond
For reflection
How could my influence help another person grow in discernment and responsibility without making them dependent on my approval?
A practice for today
In one guiding conversation, ask what the other person is noticing before offering advice. Be clear about the limits of your knowledge, and leave room for their questions and responsible decisions.
A prayer
Jesus, teacher and shepherd, shape the way I hold another person’s trust. Help me listen patiently, speak honestly, and acknowledge my limits. Free me from needing to be indispensable. May the example I offer strengthen another person’s courage, discernment, and freedom to answer your call. Amen.
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