Who Are We Trying to Please?

2 Timothy 2:3-4

In our lives there are so many people that we are supposed to please. Husbands, children, friends, people at church, our bosses... the list could go on and on. While there is not necessarily anything wrong with pleasing others, (especially our husbands!) there is something wrong if this becomes our focus.

Scripture tells us several times to be focused on pleasing God, not man. The apostle Paul even says that if he were still "trying to please man [he] would not be a servant of Christ" (See Gal 1:10)
Our scripture passage today teaches us to not get involved with civilian affairs, but to be focused on pleasing our commanding officer. Simply put, this passage means to be more concerned with doing what Christ wants us to do than anything else.

How can we put this into practice? A few things that come to my mind are if there is an issue at our work place or within our circle of friends and it does not have anything to do with us, we need stay out of it! Let's not be involved of the affairs of others. Another great way we can put this into practice is to learn to say "no". I realize this is hard for many of us because we are so used to saying "yes" to everything and wearing ourselves out trying to do everything for everybody, but when we do that we cannot be truly focused on Christ. We can not do many things and do them all well. To keep our focus on Christ, we will have to say "no" to some good things, so we will be able to say "yes" to some great things!

Last but certainly not least, the best way to keep our focus on our "Commanding Officer" is to "fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith" (See Heb. 12:2). Some practical ways to do this is to spend time in God's Word and in prayer, preferably on your knees or face at some point each day. Amazingly, as we change our posture, He changes our focus. Another way is to talk with others about what God is doing in your life, what He is teaching you. Many times what God is teaching you, He is teaching others.

As we change our focus to pleasing Christ instead of man many things may change in our lives. But, we will be giving up the good for the great! And we might be able to get a little sleep at night!