“Obviously, I’m not trying to win the approval of people, but of God. If pleasing people were my goal, I would not be Christ’s servant.”

Galatians 1:10

Living for applause can be exhausting! We all have it in us to be people pleasers to prove that we are great, that we are valued, or to be accepted. And when we live with the expectations of pleasing others, we are surely to be disappointed. It often leads to confusion and hurt when we are not admired, appreciated, or acknowledged for things we have done or the work we accomplished. And while it is not wrong to want those things, it distracts us from the true freedom and joy of serving and pleasing God.

But when we live for an audience of One, we seek first and foremost to please God. When we “remember that the Lord gives us an inheritance as our reward, and that the Master we are serving is Christ”, (Colossians 3:24), then we are able to confidently move about our lives knowing that we have nothing to prove to this world, nothing to gain in this world, and nothing to lose in this world. When we are aware of and obedient to God’s way of life, pleasing Him becomes our only desire and concern.

This means though that we have to decide daily whose approval we’re going to seek. This is often a hard decision because we inherently want to please those around us. But if we do what we do as an act of worship and service to God rather than expecting something in return from others, our joy will be multiplied as we see our identity validated through His purpose.

So as you move from pleasing people to pleasing God, know that your greatest freedom and satisfaction will come from our all-knowing and all- powerful God Who is working behind the scenes to make everything we do, when done with the right motives, meaningful for His Kingdom.

He sees. He knows. He approves!

#SaturdaySoulSearch