Speaker: Ben Sigman
Theme: Pleasing Everyone
Weekend Music links on iTunes: All Over the World by Matt Redman; Hosanna by Paul Baloche; You'll Come by Hillsong; Rescue by Desperation Band; None but Jesus by Brooke Fraser.
Read: Proverbs 19:19, Proverbs 19:3
Think: Have you ever tried to make an angry person happy? You may have found out that it is an impossible task. The harder you try, the angrier the person gets. Some of us may have learned this the hard way.
I have an especially hard-to-please family member on my husband’s side (I have a few on my own side, but will save that talk for another devotion). The harder I tried to make her happy, the meaner she got. I prepared the things she liked to eat, the shows she liked to watch, and the games she liked to play. At the end of her visits, I felt tired and happy she was gone. I was definitely working harder at making her happy, than she was herself. How did her happiness become my job, anyway?
Proverbs 19:19 says, “Hot-tempered people must pay the penalty. If you rescue them once, you will have to do it again.” This rescuing business is very peculiar- why would we even want to rescue an angry person? Why do we think we should rescue an angry person? Probably because it makes us feel a little more powerful, a little bit more in control, even a bit special when we can subdue, soothe, or please a hot-tempered person from his/her own rage. But being that angry person’s pacifier only keeps him/her an emotional baby. We keep the person from experiencing his/her own consequences that could turn him/her to Christ.
When we decide to step back from rescuing or soothing an angry person, we allow that person the room they need to grow. We feel uncomfortable and powerless when we don’t please or save them, but we can take that discomfort and powerlessness to God and ask Him to help us. If we get out of the way, God can really show up and transform that angry person into a growing person.
And guess what? I changed my tactics with my especially-hard-to-please-family-member. Instead of making her happiness my goal, I made pleasing God my goal, which was not altogether as impossible as the other! Both she and I did a little growing up in the process, too. Our relationship is better for it.
Do: Acknowledge one thing that you will step back from. Actively turn to God with trust and surrender.
Pray: God, help me to recognize when I step in and try to rescue someone from the consequences of their own behavior. Help me to turn to You for comfort instead of over-functioning for someone else. Help me to always direct the people around me to You.
The eDevotional is written each week by a team of volunteers from Timberlake Church.
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