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: Matthew 6:33, Romans 14:17-18, Proverbs 3:3-4
Think: Prioritizing our focus is the key to personal success. Take for instance your profession. You may have many ideas to improve yourself and work productivity, but unless you prioritize the ideas and focus on one of them at a time, none of them will come into reality.
Similarly, we can prioritize our worship. Romans 14:17-18 says, “The important things are living right with God, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Anyone who serves Christ by living this way is pleasing to God and will be accepted by other people.” The writer here prioritizes the object of our worship as God first. As we focus on pleasing God first, then our peaceable, joyful and Christ-centered behavior follows. A natural consequence of this behavior is being accepted by other people- but pleasing people is not the goal.
That on which we focus, will increase. When we focus on pleasing God with our worship, thoughts and behaviors, God becomes bigger in our life. Our understanding of God, our ability to love and be faithful increases. But if we focus on the expectations of other people, those expectations grow in importance- to a bottomless pit of expectations that can never be fulfilled.
As we focus on the things that God wants for us, we will find that this takes faith and trust. It may be a bit uncomfortable and even scary at times, but God is good and trustworthy and able to supply all your needs. Stick with pleasing God first, and let Him take care of other people’s expectations. This is what Jesus was talking about when He said, “Seek first God’s kingdom and what God wants. Then all your other needs will be met as well.” (Matthew 6:33)
Do: Take some time to see how God wants to grow you in faith and trust by pleasing Him first. Write down some expectations that you feel from other people that are contrary to God’s ways for you, and surrender those things to Him in prayer.
Pray: God, help me to seek your kingdom first, surrendering my needs and wants to you so you can fulfill them in your perfect love.
The eDevotional is written each week by a team of volunteers from Timberlake Church.
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