Shouldn’t this be the statement of all of our lives. I would encourage you to pray that it would be said of you, the motivation that woke you up in the morning and drove every single decision you make, and the desire you  have is all driven by “God, I want to obey You.” Not people.

 

We all have the dangerous tendency to be people pleasers, to just want to do what will make people like us. Our own pride and ego has a tendency to drive our decisions. Our question is usually how will this affect the way others perceive me? How will this affect the way others think of me? What will others think about this or that?

 

Instead our drive, our every thought, desire, action should be driven by “what will God think of this?” What will most please Him? What is most obedient thing to do compared to His Word? This is what matters!

 

People’s perception, praise and applause is fleeting. It doesn’t last and it’s not what matters. What matters ultimately is what God says, what He has said in His Word, obeying it and then what He will say in the end. We must obey God rather than people. Look at the context in Acts 5, in the middle of persecution, as they were experiencing imprisonment, even when it would cost them dearly they said our goal is not to please the government our goal is to please God. May this motivation drive us today at everything we do.

 

Pray today that God will help you and I to be driven with the zeal to obey Him alone. To deliver us from people pleasing. Ask Him to deliver us, save us from ourselves, from the pride that causes us to want to please anyone else above pleasing Him.

 

In His Service,

Eric Barnes