Hunkered Down Devotion

Galatians 1:10 (Voice)
10 Do you think I care about the approval of men or about the approval of God? Do you think I am on a mission to please people? If I am still spinning my wheels trying to please men, then there is no way I can be a servant of the Anointed One, the Liberating King.

Paul, as he often does, is clearly asking a rhetorical question here in the first sentence of this verse, he has made it clear time and time again whose approval he is seeking after.   But while it is a rhetorical question for Paul, I want to suggest that is a question that all of us might want to ask ourselves, not just rhetorically, on a regular basis.

Why are we making the decisions we are making?  Is it for the approval of the people around me or is it for God?  Why am I saying the things I am saying, for people or for God?  Why am I investing my time in the things I am watching, reading, listening to?  For God or for people?  

Paul tells us plainly, as long as we are chasing after the approval of the men and women around us, trying to please them with our words and our actions we will be ‘spinning our wheels’.  We won’t get where we are trying to go – because we will never be able to please everyone, or likely even most of the people, and the sacrifices that are required when we seek after worldly approval become increasingly more costly.  

Instead, if we focus on the things that will be pleasing to God, we will find that our lives, and our desires will begin to align more and more closely with God’s plans for our lives and so that path God leads you on will become more worn and easier for you to travel.  

Sharing God’s Love
Chip  

Prayer: Lord, help us to seek after your approval not that of the men and women around us. Amen.