Pleasing God vs. Pleasing Man

Do you find your walk with the Lord being held back by what you fear others will think about you? Do you find yourself more interested in what people think over what God thinks of you?

Galatians 1:10 "Do you think I am trying to make people accept me? No, God is the One I am trying to please. Am I trying to please people? If I still wanted to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ."

When posed with the questions above the first thought is to immediately say"No", but God knows our hearts. Paul was obviously not worried about trying to please the people around him. It's not that he didn't care about others. It's just that he was focused on serving the Lord. Many times you maybe too worried about what people think of you, which inhibits you from following God with your whole heart. Instead, follow those God-given desires with reckless abandon, because all that will matter in the end is fulfilling God's plan for your life. You are called to serve God without reserve, so fulfill His plan without letting others sidetrack you. We must constantly allow the Holy Spirit to purge our hearts, if we are to have them changed, and become better witnesses for Christ in the workplace.

One of the reasons for our actions may be that we tend to truly doubt the power of God. We want to believe it in our hearts, but it is still stuck somewhere in our heads. It is still a belief that has not yet become a value. The difference in a belief and a value is: a belief can be swayed and convinced to change over time, but a value is something that is deeply and firmly implanted in someone and a conviction that someone will actually die for.

I believe that the only way for a belief to become a value is to test it over and over, until the change occurs, and it finds a path from our minds into our hearts. For instance, I prayed for many sick and hurting people over the years without any known results, and while I believed that God could and would heal because the Word said so, it did not become a rock solid value until I saw God actually heal. Sad and even very doubting Thomas like but true!

Today when I pray for God to heal others who are hurting, I pray with much more expectancy, that God will move in their lives. Do I always see God heal those I am praying for? The answer is no, but I still continue to pray for others with great faith in God’s faithfulness, because I know the Word of God is true and that God does heal. If anyone now asks me if God heals, I would immediately say “certainly”, as it has become a value.

Another problem is the fact that man has really messed up the church over the years since Christ’s death and resurrection. We have come up with our own religious rules and regulations that God never intended us to follow. Man’s religious ways will always look silly to the world!
But even when we simply do the same things that Jesus did in the workplace we will find persecution. Jesus told us that we would be blessed for following Him, but that we would also be persecuted at the prophets before us were persecuted. 11"Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. 12 Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you." Salt and Light 13"You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men." Matthew 5:12-14 Jesus warned us that the world hated Him and that would also hate us. John 15:17-19

So being reminded of that, let’s get over ourselves, dies to ourselves each day, take up our cross and follow Him in the workplace. We will probably find that our actions that flow out of a heart full of him will have more results and be better accepted though, than just the religious efforts that we make at times. When our actions are guided by the Holy Spirit then the results are always astonishing and bear much fruit.

Let’s all simply become more intimate with God each day and trust that God will use the actions that flow out of our transformed hearts.

Let’s not be so concerned about what others think of us and more concerned about what God thinks of us. Let’s become living sacrifices for Christ in the workplace!

Lord, Fill us with Your holy presence today and empower us to be your servants in the workplace. Please give us the dedication to be Your servant alone. Help us not to be sidetracked by what others may think of us. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

Have another powerful and prosperous day of living to please God in the workplace and at home!