Pleasing God or Pleasing People?

Ok so I am a skimmer, not a real live reader.  And I most certainly skim the introduction and greetings in Bible chapters.  So I certainly skimmed over this verse, trying to get to the ‘point’ of the chapter.

Good thing it was the only verse to to read for the study today, or I may have missed it again. lol 😉

WOW!  I’m so glad I stopped and read it!  Let me share it with you:

In the previous verses, Paul was questioning the Galatians on why they were deserting Christ and turning to a different gospel, that wasn’t even a gospel at all (verse 6).  He went on to say that people are throwing you into confusion.  PEOPLE.  Did you read that??

People.were.throwing.them.into.confusion.  And perverting the Gospel of Christ. (That’s a whole other topic, for another day!)

Then Paul asks the question.  He asks, ‘Am I trying to please people?  Am I trying to win approval of people?’  Then He says, ‘IF I am still trying to please people I would NOT be a servant of God.’

Paul acknowledges that if he is trying to PLEASE people he is not serving God.  He also acknowledges that he, past tense, WAS trying to please people.

What about us?  Where are we at?

Are we pleasing God or Man?

Are we serving God or Man?

Sometimes we may have to step out and do something we KNOW is not going to please the people around us.  Somethings, may not look ‘right’ in someone else’s eyes.  We have to follow Christ.  We have to do what Christ tells us to do.

I’m caught red-handed.

I am like Paul, I used to be a people pleaser.

There is one person I can NEVER completely please.

I used to spend my life trying to please her.

And It never worked.

I never could completely please her.

Instead I was found myself miserable.

Have you ever met that person? Do you have a person, a group of people, a huge lot of people that you are living to please?  Your sister?  Your pastor?  Your friend?  Your mom?  Your grandpa?  Your dad?  SOCIAL MEDIA?  Sometime the person we are trying to please isn’t even watching, sometimes they are even dead already.

This pleasing God, it will look different in your life, it will look different in my life.  It looked different in Paul’s life than it does in our life.  God has a special task for each of us.  Different from everyone else.

One thing is for sure, it will NOT be sin.  In NO way will God ask us to do sin.

Pleasing God; It might look like homeschooling your children, when everyone else in your church chooses public school.  It might be staying away from the ball field because you get too involved in the game and lose your temper.  It might be setting strong, yet loving, boundaries with your parents because they can’t seem to respect you and your husband’s marriage.  It might be telling your children they can’t go somewhere, or do something that would put them in danger, even if other parents are allowing it.   It might be writing a blog.  It might be standing up for the Truth of the Word in a culture that doesn’t want to hear.  It might be accepting the job of ‘stay at home mom’ in a working mom world.  It might be working in a environment that needs to see Christ’s light shine brightly.

When God asks us to do something that we think people may not like; We need to RUN.TO.THE.WORD.

When we start to worry what people think of us; We need to RUN.TO.THE.WORD.

When we are tempted to be thrown into confusion, by all the many things others want to place on us, we need to RUN.TO.THE.WORD.

If we don’t know which way is right, we need to RUN.TO.THE.WORD.

Each time we run to the Word,

Each time we run to Christ,

we can leave with renewed courage to

He is my light, my strength, my song;

this Cornerstone, this solid Ground,

firm through the fiercest drought and storm.

What heights of love, what depths of peace,

when fears are stilled, when strivings cease!

My Comforter, my All in All,

here in the love of Christ I stand.

No guilt in life, no fear in death,

From life’s first cry to final breath.

No power of hell, no scheme of man,

Can ever pluck me from His hand;

Till He returns or calls me home,

Here in the power of Christ I’ll stand.

“In Christ Alone” Natalie Grant

This is the power of Christ.  Not pleasing men.  Pleasing God.

This is the Power of Christ that we can stand on.

I would love to have you join in and share what your ‘Pleasing God Calling’ looks like.