Over the past few months God challenged me with one simple question; “Do you live to please people or do you live to please Me?” Life is a constant battle,
we seek acceptance from friends, desire attention from loved ones, strive for
the appreciation of leaders, yearn to be acknowledged by the one and long for
the approval of our parents while on an unmerited pursuit to earn the favour of
God.
“Here it is in a nutshell: Just as one person did it wrong and got us in all this trouble with sin and death, another person did it right and got us out of it. But more than just getting us out of trouble, he got us into life! One man said no to God and put many people in the wrong; one man said yes to God and put many in the right.” Romans 5:18-19 (MSG)
Adam and Jesus were both
created by God and purposed as life giving vessels, Adam and Eve vessels for
humanity and Jesus a vessel for eternity, created for the same destiny, but
resulting in different destinations all because of one simple decision.
Why the different outcomes
one might ask? Adam bowed down to the created (Eve) and Jesus bowed down to His
creator (God). Adam lived for one and all died, but Jesus lived for one and died
for all.
“And to the man he said, “Since you listened to your wife and ate from the tree whose fruit I commanded you not to eat, the ground is cursed because of you. All your life you will struggle to scratch a living from it.” Genesis 3:17 (NLT)
Every generation from that
point onward was cursed as a result of Adam’s one act of disobedience. He was
in good council yet he didn't seek the council of God when faced with a simple
choice. If you choose to make decisions based on your feelings towards the people around you, it will steer you away from all God intends
to accomplish through you. Our reason for living is to make others happy without
letting our happiness depend on others. If you strive for the approval of
people and receive it, you will always be striving to maintain it, you might
start to feel like a burden and eventually burn out.
When you are a people
pleaser you will in-turn become a people praiser; thanking people for the
recognition they give you instead of thanking God for using you as a vessel of
His goodness.
“Don’t you realize that you become the slave of whatever you choose to obey? You can be a slave to sin, which leads to death, or you can choose to obey God, which leads to righteous living.” Romans 6:16
Then God sent Jesus, whose
decisions to follow God’s will above all else gave us eternal life. People
tried to distract Him from His destiny, He, however, decided to follow God’s
will instead of the people’s pleas.
“From that time Jesus began to show His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised up on the third day. Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him, saying, “God forbid it, Lord! This shall never happen to You.” But He turned and said to Peter, “Get behind Me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to Me; for you are not setting your mind on God’s interests, but man’s.” Matthew 16: 21-23
Often those closest to us think
they know what’s best for us, but our future extends far beyond us therefore we
need to be selfless in our decisions. We are just a spec in God’s spectacular
plan therefore we need to surrender our life to God and not to people to live
in true freedom.
“Human hands can’t serve his needs—for he has no needs. He himself gives life and breath to everything, and he satisfies every need.” Acts 17:25
God doesn't need us to
please Him either. He didn't create us to serve Him, He created us to serve one
another. God said it is not good for man to be alone so He created Eve the
trouble comes in when we turn to others before turning to Jesus. All
God desires is our gratitude in exchange for His grace and every act of
obedience is an act of gratitude. Instead of staying in the season we are in to
make others happy, we should continue reinventing ourselves in the identity of
Christ.
The only way to explain it
is to look at those who create, Peter, Paul and the rest who established the
early Church, artists, authors, and poets such as Emily Dickinson, Anne Frank,
Vincent van Gogh and John Keats. All of these created because they had a
passion and love for their craft but only achieved recognition long after they
were gone. Just like God created us but only received the proper recognition He
desired after the death and resurrection of Jesus. If we continue to serve
people and love God because we have a passion for Jesus and an innate desire to
see the world know the same Jesus that saved us, I believe that our will, will
always line up with the will of God.
