Sunday July 14, 2019
“I seek not to please myself but him who sent me.” Jn 5:30 NIV
now who you are trying to please. Jesus didn’t try to please everybody, so isn’t it foolish for you to try to do something even God doesn’t do’ It was a settled issue with Jesus: Tm going to please God, period!” And God replied, “This is my be loved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Mt 3: 17). Wl1en you lose sigl1t of who you’re trying to please you’ll always cave in to three things: (1) Criticism, because you’re overly concerned about wl1at ot11ers think of you. (2) Competition, because you’re afraid somebody will get ahead of you. (3) Conflict, because you’re threatened by anyone who disagrees with you. Jesus said, ·seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things that you’re stressed out over! sl1all be added unto you· (Mt 6:33). By focusing on God’s will you simplify your lifer You’ll always be doing the right thing, the thing that pleases Him, regardless of what anybody else thinks. We love to blame stress on other people and on our obligations: “You made me do… l have to … I’ve got to.” Actually, t11ere are few things in life apart from our jobs that we must do. So what we’re really saying is, ·1 cl1oose to you fill in the blank] because I don’t want to handle the consequences.” Rarely does anybody make us do anything, so we can’t blame ot11er people for our stress. When we feel pressured, we’re choosing to let others put us there. The fact is, we’re not victims unless we allow ourselves to be pressured by outside demands.
