Seldom set foot in your neighbor’s house– too much of you, and they will hate you.

Proverbs 25:17

Thanks to my friends who wanted me to continue “TRANSFORM TWENTY”. I tried posting it for a month and I got good responses, but then I let it rest thinking people had enough. But yesterday someone wondered where they went? Well I am more than happy to bring them back. I treat my blog like I treat a conversation, I don’t like to be annoying. Sometimes I wonder if I am talking too much and so I will go quiet for a while in order to not over-saturate the soil with my inundation of words.

Too much of you and they might hate you. But alas, I feel encouraged to start again. So, get your bible, notebook and pen, and let’s stretch those minds.

This past week four people who were associated with our church died. One of those deaths was a former pastor of Kent City Baptist. During his eulogy, his family shared how he had a life verse that he directed his life by. He would not only set his course with it, but he would tell other people about it as well. That got me thinking, “What would mine be?”

I have often considered this question and early in my Christian walk I would chose a number of verses to begin the year with. But if I had to pick one verse that I want to live by, my answer would be this…

Verse for the Week: “Am I now trying to win the approval of human beings, or of God? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ.” (Galatians 1:10)

Who do you serve? That is the question. The word service is often a very vague and general concept. We all can nod to this verse and say, “Of course, I am serving Jesus.” When we go to church and sing we are serving Jesus. When we do our devotions we can say we are serving Jesus. When we keep our house clean, kids fed, and bills paid we are serving Jesus. Serving is like a kitchen sink, everything is thrown into it rendering a rather vacuous and harmless word.

But what is interesting about this verse is that Paul uses a phrase to help us understand the idea of service more specifically. He writes am I “trying to win the approval.” Trying to win the approval of someone is a whole different thing than merely serving. Winning approval is doing those things that will cause someone to like you. We all want people to like us and approve of us so often we go out of our way to do all we can to be noticed. We fix our hair, we follow trends, we say words that don’t offend. We want to be liked.

Did you know human beings can be very hard to please? Approval does not come easy. Sometimes it is like pulling teeth just to get someone to notice you or even care. Everyone is so caught up in themselves they have no time for you. But God, on the other hand, is much easier to please.

He likes you the way you are. He has all the time in the world to spend with you, he cares about what is on your heart, and he even wants to carry your burdens.

But we want the approval of the grumps, critics, popular and proud. And it takes an awful lot to get a simple acknowledgment let alone full blown approval. Maybe that is why we are so stressed out all the time? Why do we care so much about others caring about me? Most of our lives are spent trying to make people happy.

But we need to stop this. Look what Paul says at the end of the verse: If I am living just to simply impress humans and I forget God, then “I should not be a servant of Christ!”

Questions to Answer:

(1) How much of your day is spent trying to serve others? How much of your day is trying to impress yourself? How much of your day is trying to please God?

(2) What does God demand you to do to make him happy?

(3) Whose opinion matters the most to you? What if it didn’t, how would your life change?

(4) How are you going to change your life to serve God only?