Please God, not men

 11 Oct 25

Today's devotional: taken from YouVersion, Life Application Study Bible Devotion


Please God, not men

Do you spend your life trying to please everybody? Paul had to speak harshly to the Christians in Galatia because they were in serious danger. He did not apologize for his straight-forward words, knowing that he could not serve Christ faithfully if he allowed the Galatian Christians to remain on the wrong track. Whose approval are you seeking-others' or God's? Pray for the courage to seek God's approval above anyone else's.


“Am I now trying to win the approval of human beings, or of God? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ.”Galatians‬ ‭1‬:‭10‬ ‭NIV‬‬

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Reflections

It is the world’s teachings that somehow taught us to seek the approval of men. It is somehow in us, because we are all born with sin. When we are a kid we are taught to please people. Please our parents, our teachers, etc., in order to survive in this bias and dog eat dog world. When we are grown up, the organisations we worked for wanted us to work towards KPI and it is all tied to our bonus, etc. We are all being conditioned to work for rewards, status, awards, promotion, power and control.


Someone who has been to the girls home told me this-after she came out of it. That she learnt to please the in charge of the place so she can get by her days. That broke my heart, knowing the world to be so cold even in a place supposedly to be made for reform. I do hope wherever you may be, be it at home or at work or in church, that you will speak of the love of Christ and to please Him only. We don’t need to please men in order to have those worldly rewards or recognition. It will be more important to just please God and not let our work be made known. We can just be silent workers, for our Lord knows all that we have done and it is all done for His glory.


If you have known Christ once you are born, you are blessed because your parents would have taught you to seek God’s approval and not men’s. I struggle through my years living in a world not knowing what to strive for and what the striving is for, until I met Jesus. I wished I had met Him sooner, would have saved my years of troubles and perhaps prevent burnt out as well.


All thanks be to God who has shown us what is the better treasure or reward to seek.

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