Are You a People Pleaser or a God Pleaser?
How many times a day do you say or do things to get people to like you? If you answered zero, think again. Most of us do it all the time without even realizing it. Whether it is when we are picking out what clothes to wear in the morning or saying yes to something we don’t really have time for, our motivation is often to be seen highly by the people around us. The desire to be liked, or being a people pleaser, often guides the smallest to the largest of decisions.
But this isn’t God’s way. In his message, The Approval You Long For, Pastor Joel K. Johnson explains that God doesn’t want us to please people; he wants us to serve people. There’s a difference. God wants our incentive in the choices we make and the way we live to be more about getting praise from Him, not praise from others.
Pleasing People in the Bible
Galatians 1:10 says, “Am I now trying to win the approval of human beings, or God? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ.”
Pastor Joel reminds us that in life we need to try to become a God pleaser and not a people pleaser. God wants us to look to him for approval and not others. He wants us to put all our energy into pleasing Him and putting Him first.
People pleasing can harm relationships and your emotions. When we try to please people, we can stray from our morals and values and do something we normally wouldn’t. People pleasing also wears you out. It’s a lot of work to try to make everybody happy every day–and spoiler alert: it isn’t humanly possible!
Here are a few things that you can do to reset your need for human approval:
- Seek God’s approval instead of people’s applause.
- Live as if the opinion that matters most is God’s.
Sometime today ask yourself, “Am I trying to please others, or am I trying please God?” If your answer was others, ask God to show you ways you can focus more on pleasing Him. He will give you a reset and a fresh start that is unlike anything that anybody else can give to you.
View the full message in our archive or on our Youtube channel.