I was recently struck by my daughter JFW’s prayer. When she was asked to pray, among the many people she prayed for was one ‘Bondi’. I wondered who Bondi was.
I came to realize that Bondi was an actor in one of the local dramas on television. For your information, Bondi is not the best of characters; he is depicted as the leader of a band of robbers.
This really got me thinking. Why did she pray for this one person? Could it be that my daughter was praying because Bondi was bad and needed to change, or could it be that she felt he was a hero who needed to be protected? I might not know the answer for now.
This event reminded me of some teenagers in a mentorship program I have been involved in for some years now. One question that we asked the boys and girls always yielded a similar answer. We would ask them to mention a celebrity whom they knew, and whose character they did not like. In all places where we asked the question, there is one popular international musician whose name always came up.
What do these two scenarios tell us? They tell us that children or teenagers already have some idea of what is right and what is wrong. It also means that there are people who are having an impression on them at their young age, either positively or negatively.
In life, we have people who have an influence in our lives, even if not directly. These people are found in many spaces – in politics, in the media, in the business world, in the arts and entertainment world, in the education sector, in the family and in religious spaces. These are the ‘mountains of influence’ of our times.
As people of faith, we are called to be the salt and the light of the world (Matthew 5:13-14). We have been called to shed light and influence all these spaces – government, media, entertainment, business, education, religion, and the family, without exception. But I think many of us are stuck at praying for those with political authority. We have forgotten about the other ‘mountains of influence’ that surround us.
Think about all the people who have an influence in our lives and in the lives of our children. What do you think happens when we don’t pray for them? Their actions or inactions have an impact in our lives and in the affairs of our nation. Remember, “When the godly are in authority, the people rejoice” (Proverbs 29:2). Likewise, when the wicked are in authority, the people groan, they complain constantly. Does that sound familiar?
Children will either learn the right values from the influencers or they will learn wrong values. At a time when children’s minds are easily formed, we need to pray for them and for the people they follow or admire in all the spaces where they are found. Children are vulnerable and they need protection from any kind of bad influence that may come their way from any of these ‘mountains of influence’. This means that parents and other people of goodwill must be vigilant and deliberate in prayer.
As a country, let us remember to pray for those who are in positions of influence, not just the elected leaders, because the policies they make, the education they give, what they preach and the movies they make, for example, have a direct impact on our lives.
Through prayer, we must go to war against the blatant celebration of ungodly values and sin in every area of life, and those who call evil good and good evil (Isaiah 5:20). We must not allow evil to thrive in any of these ‘mountains of influence’.
When we pray for the seven mountains of influence, God will hear our prayers, and we will begin to see a shift in our culture towards righteousness. Our prayers are not in vain because the earnest prayers of the righteous have great power and produce wonderful results (James 5:16).
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