Image

Image

25.5.11

People Pleasing in an Affliction

"You can't please everyone" is a popular and well-known maxim, yet people fail to realize that it is a biblical principle. Galatians 1:10 says this: For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ. In the life of a Christian, you serve only to please God, not in the sense that you need to please Him so that you can go to Heaven. No, it's more that since you are in a relationship with God--He is our Heavenly Father--you desire to obey and please Him because you love Him. Akin with your relationship with your parents, do you obey your mother and/or father because you need to or feel that unless you acquiesce to their demand, you won't get what you want? Or because you love them and you show that you love them by obeying them with a glad and cheerful heart? It's likewise with God. Therein lies the question: of whom do you seek the approval--man or God? First, look at the first option. When it says to please man, the world, or anyone else other than God, it's not directly referring to a person; it's referring to ungodly mentality. If you are trying to please the world--again, a mentality of how ungodly people think, love, trust, etc.--then you are ultimately not serving God. How do I know this? Let's look at James 4:4, which says: You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. You must realize that this Scripture is not referring to friending non-Christian people or talking to people who don't necessarily share your faith. It has nothing to do with that; it has more to do with accepting what the world thinks is okay and is normal, even if the Word of God says it's wrong. If you deliberately choose to accept the normalcy of the world even if the Bible says it's not right, regardless of how many people choose to believe it is (Refer to Proverbs 14:12), you are fraternizing with the enemy and who is the enemy? Satan. And since you associate yourself with the evil one, you better keep in mind that he will do his best to mess you up since you've given him legal access. Also, a well known Scripture--yet tediously overlooked--2 Corinthians 6:14, which illuminates the often inevitable downfall of allowing yourself to align your mindset with the world around you: Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what do wickedness and righteousness have in common? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? You see, the problem with associating yourself with someone who does not only share your faith but also values and morals, is that because you spend much time with that person, their thinking often infiltrates you, leading you to think likewise. All that time, all that talking eventually leads you to think and agree with that person's mindset, even if that is biblically and morally incorrect. It often seems something as minuscule as lying. That person may tell you on several occasions that it's all right to lie as long as no one gets in trouble. You hear those words and filters in your mind until you eventually think that it's all right to lie, even if lying is a sin, regardless of the size. Or perhaps, it could be someone who doesn't believe that the Blood of Jesus purchased your healing. That person doesn't believe in that, expresses the incongruity of how Jesus came only for sin (and nothing else) and that we have to live and tolerate our sickness. You hear that so much, it enters your mind, and even if you don't realize it at once, you being to attest to that statement. But you don't say anything because you want to be friends with that person and even though you know in your spirit that it's wrong, you'd rather zip your lip than say anything because you fear that if you say something, that person won't be your friend...and you are frightened that might happen. Pleasing the world (thinking like them, acting like, talking like them) leads to disastrous results. You are more preoccupied with pleasing everyone around you than pleasing the One you serve...not to mention the One who paid the price for eternal paradise. Pleasing everyone except God has fatal consequences, one of which, as you have seen in James 4:4, that is you are enemy to God, then surely you will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven. You choose to go to Heaven but be cautious because friends have the ability to drag you to hell based on decisions that have a rippling effect. I must clarify that being friends with unsaved people is not sin; in fact, it's encouraged that you reach to them. It's a sin when you become like them. Jesus hung out with tax collectors and prostitutes but Jesus didn't come a tax collector or prostitute, nor did He think or behave like one. When you are trying to please people, what are you trying to gain? Are you trying to gain their acceptance? love? trust? confidence? or something else underlying that? With God, you don't have to try or gain something; He has already given it to you. Being so amicable with the world that you become like it separates you from God and just as sin is described as separation from God, you therefore don't go to Heaven; you go to another destination and at what cost? Is it worth pleasing man? Stuffing your pride, morals, values, and faith in a corner in order to be popular or have a large network of friends has its price. You are worshipping something other than God. I say people please is an affliction because it's not something you pass on; it's generated through an intricate series of choices that ultimately lead you to this location. Are you trying to please God or man? Are you so friendly with the world that when certain things that the Bible has said is wrong for all generations and for all time (even though the media attempts to portray that it's okay, that it's normal, and that it's not wrong) you agree with everyone else? What does evil and wickedness have in common with light and righteousness? Nothing, my friends, and that is why saturating yourself in the world's mentality darkens and dims your light and Christ is the light and if He's not shining brightly in you, what is?

No comments:

Post a Comment