SHEPHERD
TO SHEEP
PEOPLE PLEASING
(Gal 1:10) For do I now persuade men, or God? Or do I seek to
please men? For if I still pleased men, I would not be a bondservant of
Christ.
Are you a people pleaser? Do
you have a hard time saying no to others?
Do you feel it’s your responsibility to make everyone happy around
you? Do you make decisions to please
people that you regret later? Then it
looks like you may be a people pleaser for sure!
Why do some have this tendency and how can a person overcome this
weakness? Well, like anything else we
struggle with the solution is in the Bible.
Let’s see what God’s Word has to say.
In the book of Acts the disciples were told to not preach any more
in the name of Jesus. That didn’t set
right with them as they were told by Jesus to go everywhere and preach the
gospel (Acts 16:15). So this is how they
replied: But Peter and the other apostles
answered and said: “We ought to obey God rather than men. (Acts 5:29) Don’t you love it? They had the capacity to say no to others and
yes to what they knew was right. How did
they do it? Where did their strength come
from? Their boldness came from the desire
to please God rather than man.
Jesus said something quite amazing:
(John 8:29) And He who sent Me is
with Me. The Father has not left Me alone, for I always do those things that
please Him.” May that be the desire
of every follower of Christ! To always
please the Lord and not to please man.
But it’s interesting when we please the Lord then it also trickles down
into our relationships. (Pro 16:7) When a man’s ways please the
LORD, He makes even his enemies to be at peace with him. But in between the time people will get mad
that you didn’t do what they wanted. But
eventually you just may gain their respect because you stood for what was right
when you were under pressure to do the opposite.
It is deep in many of us to be liked. No one wants to be rejected. So in that desire to be accepted we may go a
little too far in pleasing people. This
inclination could lead us to compromise our values and do things we never set
out to do (Pro 29:25). It could lead to
burnout because we say yes to everything and fail to pray about it (Josh
9:14). It surely leads to frustration
because we find ourselves living for the approval of others when our goal is to
live for Christ and His commendation. (John 12:43) for they loved the praise of
men more than the praise of God.
When are we going to learn that we are not responsible for other
people’s happiness? They have to rely
upon God for that. When we people please
we are taking over God’s job! No wonder
this way of living wipes us out. Yes, we
are to serve others as our Lord taught us but we are not their savior. When we people please really no one is
pleased…including God, ourselves, and even that other person. So let’s please the Lord because that is so
pleasing!
Louie
1 comment:
Hi this is Jen Lully. We met a couple years ago at the Adventure Learning Centre in the Bahamas. This was a very timely reminder, thank you!
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