One of my favorite verses in all of scripture is Galatians 1:10. This one verse has gone a long way in breaking down a bunch of walls I had built up in order to look good, sound good and appeal to my ego. This week, I'm going to pull five things we can take home from this single verse.
Obviously, I’m not trying to win the approval of people, but of God. If pleasing
people were my goal, I would not be Christ’s servant.
My first encounter with these two sentences came about two years ago while helping a pastor friend with the small church he leads. They helped out in giving us some perspective during a challenging time when others would have had us sacrifice the direction God was leading in to favor making people happy.
Has that ever happened to you? You arrive at a fork in the road in your walk with God. God asks you to do something that is not only difficult, but unpopular. This path could cost you friends. It could create some enemies. So what choice do you make?
Go the easy route, and you guarantee that people will at the very least not be unhappy with you. If the route has been part of a discussion, the people might even be very pleased with you. In fact, they have probably reasoned that God really wants you to take the logical and easy route. No doubt they have told you of the good things that will happen if you make the people's choice, and the bad that will happen to you if you decide differently.
But, what about God? What is He telling you to do? In Galatians 1:10, Paul hints at the struggles that he has faced in his life. He went from being a well liked, popular young Pharisee who was on track for Pharisee greatness, to being a hated, despised traitor. And, he owed it all to his obedience to Jesus.
On the Damascus road, Paul (then called Saul), had to make a very difficult choice to cast aside his popularity when Jesus confronted him, took him through a life change and on a new journey. Paul went from persecuting the churches to promoting them. He went from destroying Christians to creating them.
And, don't be fooled. Paul knew what his choice would mean. He knew that eventually, the people he once lived to please would someday come for his head. But, Paul, who penned Galatians 1:10, understood that one day all of us would kneel before Almighty God and answer for our lives, including our obedience or disobedience to Him. Considering that, Paul realized it to be a no-brainer. Pleasing people is meaningless in front of the Almighty.
What about you? Have you ever faced a difficult decision where God wanted you to go one direction, but your friends and family wanted you to go elsewhere? Who did you choose to please?
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