To hear this Morning Devotion, please click Whose box gets checked first_
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It’s a question that every person has to answer multiple times every day, it seems.
Whenever we are at the intersection of choices, we sometimes must decide between God’s will and the world’s will.
Not every decision, of course, is a spiritual statement. Whether I buy gas at the Shell station or at the Chevron station isn’t a matter of faith, you know.
But who I decide to hang out with at work can very clearly be a matter of faith. If I keep silent about faith because I don’t want to rock the boat with my best buddies who routinely disrespect others and laugh at off-color jokes, then my choice of association does make a statement about my view of God’s sovereignty over my life.
There are all sorts of other life examples of how believers sometimes fall onto the slippery slope of caring more about the approval of people than about the approval of God.
The fact is that — just like Peter and other Bible heroes — we’ve all had those moments or seasons of flawed motives.
Thank God for the mercy that forgave our craving of human blessing in place of God’s.
I share this today because of a verse in today’s reading from the One-Year Bible. True to form, the Apostle Paul equips us with a powerful, precise teaching about the place where our loyalties should lie.
“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
These are not questions only for people at the jobsite. These questions apply in the school hallway, the country club, the family room at home and even in the pulpit at church.
Do you want your pastor to be more concerned about having your approval than about having God’s approval? If you’re a control freak who wants things to go your way, you will want a preacher who checks the box with you before he checks the scriptures. But, of course, you know that the Kingdom of God is not best served in such an arrangement.
I’ve had several times in ministry when I was more concerned about not rocking the boat than I was about stepping out of the boat in faith that Christ would hold me up, whatever the horizontal pressure that came my way. I’ve learned that such compromises only caused more problems all around and that Matthew 6:33 really is the key to success for God, for others and for myself.
“Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things (life needs) will be given to you.”
To the worldly mind, it doesn’t make sense to think that serving Christ first is actually the best way to serve men. But that’s exactly the promise of God.
With every choice you make today, please think about which option would best help you to honor God, to serve others, to bless others, to forgive others, to demonstrate your commitment to personal morality, etc.
After all, we won’t be standing before men on Judgment Day, will we?
As always, I love you
Martin
