Please God, Not People

October 22, 2014

Please God, Not People

For we speak as messengers approved by God to be entrusted with the Good News. Our purpose is to please God, not people.

1 Thessalonians 2:4a

An essential responsibility of parents, coaches and teachers is to give their charges difficult tasks. If we are to grow and mature, we have to be stretched and challenged, physically, emotionally and mentally. Our Supreme parent, coach and teacher, God the Father Almighty, is a master at stretching His children.

I can easily understand why some people feel compelled to follow the traditions of the Desert Fathers, and seek seclusion rather than community. I don’t think that is just the natural tendency of my introverted nature. Just because extroverts may thrive in community, does not mean they do community well. Our Heavenly Parent wants us in community so that we can grow and be transformed. He intends for us, all of us, introverts and extroverts alike, to thrive in community by seeking to please God, not people. Our natural instinct, whether we are loners or groupers, is to seek the approval of others and to assume a defensive posture when we are unjustly accused. We are called to speak the truth in love (Ephesians 4:15), yet we often feel compelled to compromise, or water down our convictions, lest we offend another person. Living the life in Christ in community is exceedingly difficult for extroverts and introverts alike.

The dynamics of human interactions in community challenge us as we seek to meet our needs for love, acceptance and self-worth. Learning to rest in the Father’s love, learning to please God, not people, is a painful growth experience. In addition to the natural group dynamics, we now face in our country growing cultural scorn for religious practices, as evidenced by the city of Houston subpoenaing the sermons of Christian pastors in an effort to ferret out any resistance to the city’s new anti-discrimination laws.

Near the beginning of the Twentieth Century, G. K. Chesterton said, “The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and left untried.” I suspect we are entering an era of increased cultural and governmental persecution when more and more would be Christians will leave the ideals of Jesus untried. Even so, for those who authentically seek the life in Christ as their way of life, our anthem will be, “For we speak as messengers approved by God to be entrusted with the Good News. Our purpose is to please God, not people.”

Sē’lah

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(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com. The BLOG is also available on Amazon Kindle, by subscription.

Publications by Alex M. Knight:

·        Seeking the Life in Christ, Meditations on the New Testament and Psalms has been published and is now available at Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle.

·        The second edition of  First Think – Then Pray is available on Amazon Kindle.

·        Meditations on The Story of My Life as told by Jesus Christ has been released as an e-book on Amazon Kindle.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188.