I was looking up another passage this morning when a couple of other verses caught my eye. The verses were in Ephesians six, where Paul talks to servants about how they should treat their earthly masters (vs. 5-8). As I read it, I thought about how much more so this should describe our service for God. Paul also gives similar encouragement to his readers at the end of Colossians, chapter three (vs. 22-24).
You will note the verses above are from this third chapter of Colossians. I remember coming across these verses as a young woman and they have had a profound impact on me as I’ve struggled through apathy, discouragement, and disappointment through the years. They remind me that it matters how I do the work that God has given me to do—whether it be at home, here on the blog, or in the landscaping company that we own. Our attitudes, our work ethic, our motives…they matter to God. They also remind me that I am God’s servant and it is His pleasure I seek.
Do you, like me, sometimes get caught up in pleasing people rather than in pleasing God?
It is so wonderful when we can do both—please God while we please people. That’s why being loving and nice is such an easy thing to do—it makes everyone happy. God and people love when we do nice things to others. That’s an easy way to please our Heavenly Father.
But if we want to follow God and His Word with our whole hearts, then we realize that sometimes pleasing our Heavenly Father won’t always feel so good. And it certainly won’t always make others happy.
We have to do hard things and stand up for unpopular truths. We have to speak light to people who love darkness. We have to do something that we know is right when the people around us do not understand.
It is in these moments that we must remember that it is God we are seeking to please. If we can remember this (these verses are a good reminder!) then we will be much more apt to do what is right, whether we please others or we don’t.
The interesting component to this whole conversation is that when we are pleasing people, we are often doing it for selfish reasons. We don’t speak the truth in love to someone because we just don’t want the hassle. And we don’t want to be labeled a troublemaker. We go somewhere we shouldn’t go or do something we know is wrong because we don’t want the ridicule and antagonism. We go along with the crowd because…well, it’s just easier.
Oh, that we may all grow in this area of pleasing God over pleasing others and over pleasing self. We will never do this perfectly but we are, hopefully, growing just a bit more in this area with each passing year.
Amen!