Let’s add the word influencer to the list of vocations to which many young people aspire. In the past students wanted to become engineers, doctors, NFL players, teachers, or movie stars. Now many of them want to become influencers. An influencer is someone who has built a following in some niche area of interest on social media and podcasting platforms. Many influencers focus on lifestyle, skincare, fitness, pets, or specialized hobbies. Their success is measured by the number of people who follow them on social media—the number of likes, shares, and comments. The most successful ones end up with brand endorsements and sponsors.

I believe you and I should be just as zealous—more so!—in seeking to be an influencer. The difference is this: We want to influence people toward the Gospel and point them to Jesus Christ. The Lord told the prophet Jeremiah, “If you speak good words rather than worthless ones, you will be my spokesman. You must influence them; do not let them influence you!” (Jeremiah 15:19, NLT)

So whom will you influence this coming year? You’ll have 365 opportunities to do so. In the next 365 days your life can reflect the love and life of Jesus more than in any other year of your life up to now. It’s a decision to make just as we step into 2026. Let’s become influencers! I’ll give you four suggestions for becoming more intentional about curating your personal testimony.

Learn About Jesus

First, learn more about Jesus and come to know Him better than ever. Philippians 3:10 says, “[For my determined purpose is] that I may know Him [that I may progressively become more deeply and intimately acquainted with Him, perceiving and recognizing and understanding the wonders of His Person more strongly and more clearly]” (AMPC).

One way of doing this is immersing ourselves in the Gospel accounts of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Every time we work our way through those books, we become better acquainted with our Lord Jesus. The Gospel of Mark is the shortest Gospel with sixteen chapters. You can read it in one sitting of about an hour—the same length of time as a television crime show.

In his book Reading the Gospels Wisely Jonathan T. Pennington wrote, “There is a reason why the fourfold Gospel witness has always stood at the head of the New Testament canon and why the Gospels have always been so beloved. It is because in them we encounter the risen Christ in person. We learn not just about him and what he theologically accomplished for us and what we are supposed to do as a result, but we get to see the sweet Lion and the roaring Lamb in action—loving people, showing compassion, teaching and discipling, rebuking and correcting, suffering and ultimately dying for us. We encounter him in a way unique to the Gospels.”¹

So read the Gospels, reread, and read yet again the Gospel accounts. Learn His ways and learn His words. Visualize the scenes of His life from Bethlehem to Nazareth to the green hills of Galilee and the chaotic streets of Old Jerusalem.

Live Like Jesus

As we learn more about Jesus and come to know Him better, something extraordinary begins to happen to us. The Holy Spirit goes to work in our personalities, shaping them increasingly into mirror images of His temperament. His nine core character traits—love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control—begin to emerge as dominant attitudes within us. The Bible calls this the “fruit of the Spirit” in Galatians 5:22-23.

Returning to the Amplified Bible, 2 Corinthians 3:18 says, “And we all, with unveiled face, continually seeing as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are progressively being transformed into His image from [one degree of] glory to [even more] glory, which comes from the Lord, [who is] the Spirit.”

In other words, as we keep looking at the Lord and growing in our knowledge of Him, the Holy Spirit changes us. Step by step we become more like Jesus. This is the work of the Holy Spirit. When New York City pastor Tim Keller passed away at age 72, an unusual tribute came from author Jonathan Rauch. “Though he was a man of profound learning,” Rauch said, “he always expressed it with curiosity and humility…. When I hear the term ‘Christlike,’ I’ll think of him.”²

So what’s unusual about the quote? Jonathan Rauch was not a Christian believer. He was a Jewish atheist and openly gay. Yet something about Keller’s Spirit-shaped personality touched Rauch and caused him to describe him as “Christlike.”

As we yield ourselves to Christ, live in the Gospels, walk with the Lord, and grow in our spiritual life, others will hopefully see more and more of Jesus—and less and less of us!

Love Like Jesus

We also have 365 opportunities this year to love like Jesus, and love is our calling card. An old hymn says: “May the love of Jesus fill me as the waters fill the sea; Him exalting, self-abasing, this is victory.”³ What a good prayer for us!

Love isn’t just a sensation. It’s not simply a warm feeling in your body. The love of Jesus wears work gloves and handles the everyday nuts and bolts of life. It’s very practical. It hugs the lonely. It feeds the hungry. It tends the sick. It comforts the sorrowful, and it puts up with the insufferable. It’s kind and longsuffering. It’s pure and perceptive and positive in its outlook. It is truly one of the foundations of a life beyond amazing.

John MacArthur wrote, “Love compliments and balances everything else. It is the beautiful, softening principle. It keeps our firmness from becoming hardness and our strength from becoming domineering. It keeps our maturity gentle and considerate. It keeps our right doctrine from becoming obstinate dogmatism and our right living from becoming smug self-righteousness.”⁴

Here’s the interesting thing about it. Until Jesus came to this earth, nobody had ever experienced that kind of love. This category of love was unknown. It showed up in the Greek New Testament as agape. It represented the kind of love Jesus brought to this earth. The world’s concept of love was and is very self-centered. It demands something in return. But when God sent His Son as a love-gift to this world, His special, others-centered love was put on display for all of us to watch.

In John 13:34, Jesus said, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another.” This year we can do that every single day.

Light Up the World Like Jesus

As we learn more about Jesus, live like Him, and love like Him, we’ll light up the world around us. Perhaps you’ve heard about the little girl in church who was asked what a saint was. She pointed to the stained-glass windows and said, “They are the people the light shines through.” What a great definition! The Bible says of God’s people: “They looked to Him and were radiant” (Psalm 34:5).

Be a light-bearer in a world of darkness. One element of this involves our spirit of hope and joy because those attitudes are in short supply in our world. When we live like Jesus, we will discover opportunities to share the message of Jesus.

In a 2020 Christianity Today article writer Sara Billups shared her New Year’s resolution: to speak more openly and unapologetically about being a Christian. She lived in a secularized part of the country, and she had long avoided discussing her faith outside of church. But she made up her mind to change that. In doing so, she found that openness about her faith reshaped relationships with friends, colleagues, and neighbors, weaving her Christianity more fully into everyday life.5

The world is very dark right now, and that means our lights matter more than ever. Whatever the new year brings, let’s resolve to learn more about Jesus, to live and love like Him, and to light up our world one moment at a time! Take a moment and pray the children’s song many of us learned in Sunday school: “To be like Jesus, to be like Jesus. All I ask, to be like Him.”

¹Jonathan T. Pennington, Reading the Gospels Wisely: A Narrative and Theological Introduction (Baker Academic, 2012), 45.

²Bob Smietana, “Tim Keller, Retired New York Megachurch Pastor and Bestselling Author, Dies at 72,” Religion News Service, May 19, 2023.

³ Kate Barclay Wilkinson, “May the Mind of Christ, My Savior,” Hymnary.

⁴John MacArthur, The MacArthur New Testament Commentary: 1 Corinthians (Moody Press, 1984), 476.

⁵Sara Billups, “My New Year’s Resolution: To Call Myself Christian in Public,” Christianity Today, January 2, 2020.