Strategic Relationships

“But you must continue to believe this truth and stand firmly in it. Don’t drift away from the assurance you received when you heard the Good News…” Col.1:23

Every parent must understand the Principle of Borrowed Voices, particularly as your children grow, someone external and God fearing that will echo godly values you uphold in your children. Sometimes, the same things you have been trying to get your child to embrace and do, someone [a borrowed voice] says the same things then it seems they are hearing it for the first time and respond immediately. For example, a son comes home to tell his father that Dr. Mike, his father’s friend, told him to stop drooping his trousers and so he is going to start wearing his trousers correctly. And the father says but I have been telling you this same thing all along. That was the challenge Epaphras had, he needed a borrowed voice, someone with credibility and depth. Someone that will come along side him and tell his children not to be given to philosophy. If you are a parent and reading this today, my advise to you is have good friends because your children will not only ignore what you say, they will copy what your friends do. Your children will get to a point in their lives that even though they love you as their parents, other adults will have more influence over them. You had better be wise enough to partner with strategic people and bring those people into their lives deliberately.

So Paul wrote a letter to the church in Colossae addressing things they should give attention to and take their attention from. And they received his words because this was the Paul they had heard so much about and now was writing to them directly and their lives changed. As a Pastor, I have borrowed voices that visit my own children time and time again to echo God’s Word for us. And guess what people come up to me expressing how blessed they are by these guest ministers. He said when a man is in Christ he is a new creature so I have to let the old things go. And I say to them but I have been saying the same thing however I am happy that you have heard. We, parents, have to be deliberate about these things.

The lie to the church in Colossae was that it had to be Jesus plus something. But the summary of what Paul was saying to them is that it has to be Jesus plus nothing. The world was saying, Jesus plus something; Paul came, influenced them, and said it is Jesus plus nothing. I see equations in Scriptures and this is my own way of summarizing what Paul said, he gave them an equation which is, Jesus + Nothing = Everything!

Prayer: Father, in the Name of Jesus, I decree that in my life and my household it shall be Jesus and Jesus alone, in Jesus Name.