Galatians 1:10 (NLT) “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.”
Quick hit today. Paul makes a pretty bold statement that – when I really let it sink in – has affected me in a much greater way.
“If I were worried about pleasing people – I wouldn’t be serving Christ!”
This tells me that “the approval of man” and “serving Christ” are mutually exclusive. There is no cross over, gray area, or bleeding between the two. So I struggle with why then, in serving Christ, I (we) sometimes get the approval of man. As I asked the Lord about it, He showed me that its because He loves people so much and often times those things I do in serving him, bless other people. The important delineation is the motive behind what I do. Why am I doing “ABC”; is it out of devotion and service to Christ – regardless of the accolades (or condemnation) I could receive from other people? Or is it in order to gain some accolade under the guise of “serving Christ”; to fill and satisfy my own selfish pride? It is something that cannot be seen or judged from the outside. Motives rarely can. It’s a total matter of the heart – as are most things concerning us and the Lord.
Jeremiah 17:9-10 (NLT) 9 “The human heart is the most deceitful of all things,and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is? 10 But I, the Lord, search all hearts and examine secret motives. I give all people their due rewards,according to what their actions deserve
It is also has become obvious that “serving Christ” or “man’s approval” not “an event” or exercise. Serving Christ or receiving men’s approval is a mindset, a lifestyle, an attitude of the heart, mind, will, and emotion. It is what I purpose myself to do. It encompasses my whole being, not just one part of me. This is why salvation isn’t just a feeling, or a just a decision. Salvation is complete surrender of everything I am to the lordship and control of Jesus Christ – my mind, my will, my emotions, my desires, my rights, and the list goes on in perpetuity – each item prefaced with the word “my”.
Psalm 139:23-24 (NKJV)
23 Search me, O God, and know my heart;
Try me, and know my anxieties;
24 And see if there is any wicked way in me,
And lead me in the way everlasting.
Running After Papa…