Pleasing to God

Galatians 1:10
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.

This is a verse that I have clung to and memorized as I step into a public ministry of writing and teaching. It would be very easy for me to slip into the habit of trying to please my leadership team, my Bible study, or those for whom I write. I like being liked, I really do, and so it would be easy to use this ministry as a platform for building my popularity. And yet, that is not really what I desire. I desire to be used of God as a catalyst in the lives of my fellow Christians (mainly women) to help them get to know Jesus ever more intimately, to love Him more passionately, and to become “radical and relevant Christians” in an evil and dying world. It’s a big dream, I know, and a dream that cannot be fulfilled even one little-bit by seeking to please the people I serve.
You and I must not worry about pleasing those around us. That is a fatal trap that will lead us no-where, and only end in the disappointment of someone – either us or them, probably both. Rather, we must seek to please God alone. He is our Master, therefore He gets to call the shots. I have discovered in my short-lived ministry life, that as I seek to please God and not men, I put myself out there, doing and saying some things that do not please some people. And so it must be with Christians who truly seek to serve and please God.
Look at the life of Jesus and the early church – they were not always liked. As a mater-of-fact, they were very frequently disliked! Many times, serving God with all that we are will mean losing the approval of men. It is dangerous ground, but I once had a good and wise friend tell me, “Dangerous ground isn’t always bad – Jesus walked on dangerous ground His entire ministry!”
However, I have noticed that the ones who usually disapprove the most are those already in the church. We have our set ways of doing things, sure that ours is the only right and Biblical way. When someone seeks to do things a little different, the religious sect screams “blasphemy” and goes running into their corners to pout and scheme.
Our God is a radical God, of radical means, who will do all He can to reach a dying world. Jesus, Himself, was radical – His ways, His thoughts, His words, His sacrifice – even the very idea of Jesus was radical. And look how the religious people of His time saw the whole thing. Actually, they missed it!! They missed all that God was trying to do for them, simply because they weren’t pleased with the way He was doing it.
Let’s not be those people. Let’s not be the ones trying to please men, and be popular. But let’s also not be the one’s who are concerned that we are not being pleased. God is working, friends, in His ways and His time, whether we like them or not. As the enemy steps it up, so does our God. Just like a chess match reaching its peak, God is setting it up to move His Man and proclaim “Check Mate!” Instead of looking on in a pout that He didn’t use the moves we would have, let’s step up and join Him, seeking to please Him in all that we do!