Are you a people pleaser?  Do you struggle with finding approval from your peers or church members?  Is that the way God wants us to live?

Of course not!  We are to live a life worthy of our calling, so accountability is important in this process, but our first priority shouldn’t be to please everybody!  Pleasing everyone is probably the quickest route to disappointment and loss of mission.  Don’t mistake working within the body and living in unity with others to be the same as pleasing everyone.  It’s not the same thing.

We can all agree that each person that God has created is unique and different.  In so saying we should also acknowledge that our vision and means to attain this vision can and probably will differ from person to person.  This isn’t to mean that the vision differs, just the method of fulfilling that vision.  So what happens then when our roads that we travel upon in our mission for God differs from others?  Sometimes we face conflict and disagreement.

Understanding how we differ within the body of Christ can assist us then to understand that our primary goal isn’t to please everyone…it just won’t happen!  Our primary goal should always be to do the will of the Father who sends us into the world through Christ’s great commission (Matt 28:16-20).

We won’t always see eye to eye with everybody along the way.  We won’t always agree with one another in our varying points of view.  In essence, there will be times when “‘haters be hatin'”…but if you are pleasing the Lord in what you’re doing and you have others within the family of God backing you up, shake off the haters and forget trying to placate them or please them…it’s just not worth your time and effort.

“Am I now trying to win the approval of men, or of God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ.” Galatians 1:10 (NIV) 

Make it a point in your life to stop focusing on what others (not friends) are saying about you.  Don’t lose sleep over these haters, they just aren’t worth your time and effort!  Don’t seek to please them either, after all as the Apostle Paul puts it, who is more important to please God or man?

There is certainly something to be said about others and elders affirming your work, and I’m not denying that at all, but others who aren’t there to support you but rather judge, condemn, criticize and who will take joy in your failure and demise, just ARE NOT WORTH your time.

There will always be the nay sayers among us…don’t let them burden you with their hate and negativity.  Instead surround yourself with God pleasing people who will help you in your mission and vision.  After all, aren’t we all better off if we first seek to please God in all that we do and say?

-Just a thought for today.