Wednesdays in the Word-Something Different

This Wednesday in the Word blogpost has gone through several changes before the actual publishing, which kind of reflects the process by which God works in me to provide me with His answers. At first I was confused and questioning, which is how this blogpost started at 9am. I couldn't quite grasp what I wanted to say about a specific issue in my life, so I was going to open up this blogpost to discussion. Still not being able to put my thoughts into words, I hit save and went on with my day. I spent lots of time in prayer, trying to gather my thoughts for this blog.  Here is the verse that had me more confused than ever, which seems weird because this verse is very self-explanatory and simple. I guess that's how God keeps his Word fresh and new every time we read it. Because each time we read a verse, we are at a different, and hopefully more mature, point in our lives, so the verse stands out in a new way.

Galations 1:10 says:
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.

Still unable to fully process my thoughts, I sat down with Stephen to get everything out. Stephen knows just how to talk to me and help me out. He lets me vent out my thoughts, then he processes and gives me great comforting words of wisdom. By the end of our talk, things just clicked, and I thought to myself, duh, its that simple... Now I'll share.

So last week in my blog, I talked a little bit about pleasing God, rather than men. I said that often times its hard to dismiss man's opinion because we believe that man is a good judge of our character. Well... sometimes they are...sometimes they aren't. I have been struggling lately with trying to decide which judgments I should take in as true to change a part of my character and which judgments I should dismiss because of falsehood. Let me try to explain further. Each day, I ask the Lord to refine me; to sharpen me; to bring out any faults so that I might become closer and more like Him every single day. Its just a moment of reflection to examine myself. So, when a person calls me out on something, I reflect because maybe that is something that I need to change in myself.

But I came to a fork in the road where I couldn't find a balance between over thinking my character and actually listening to God.

I always understood this idea of pleasing men as just trying to make them happy. However, the idea of pleasing men actually goes a lot deeper than just trying to appease someone, because when you focus on pleasing men, your focus is taken off of God. Therefore, when you begin to get the approval of man, you then begin to please or applaud yourself. So if you are feeling discomfort because you are focused on pleasing someone, and then you finally get to a point of pleasing them, then you feel at peace. Yet this peace is only short term because it comes from the approval of man. Its like saying, "Yes, ok we're good! Phew. Finally I have peace because I now have their approval. But what? You say I need to please you by doing more?" This peace is short term because it is focused on an approval that can never be met. How exhausting to have to keep this up. I want a peace that is long lasting. When your focused on God, you know the truth and understand it, and that's all that matters. If you are leading a pure life and someone disclaims that or is in disbelief about it, who cares! Don't stress about it. Don't worry about it because God knows.

And that's all that matters.

If you are not at peace (like I was), put your eyes on God the Father (and God the Father only) and he'll show you peace.