Living for God, Not People - Encouragement Café - March 23, 2017

Living For God, Not People
By Savannah Parvu
Thursday, March 23, 2017

Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart. Psalm 37:4

There are going to be people in our lives that have certain expectations of us.  There is just no way around it.  It may be a parent, friend, spouse, employer, coworker, pastor or anyone that is in your daily life. 

Everyone has different expectations and some are good, while others are not.  It’s important that we look at these expectations to see if they are in line with God’s expectations.

For those of us who are people pleasers and want to make the people in our lives happy, we can get caught up in this cycle of trying to live up to everyone’s expectations.

We don’t want to disappoint the people we love, so we go out of our way to try to measure up to the person that they want us to be.  If we meet their expectations then they will be happy and approve of us.

I have tried to live this way and I found that it’s completely exhausting trying to live up to everyone’s expectations.  Not only is it exhausting, but it’s also unrealistic.  In order for me to come close to meeting every expectation I would have to pretend to be someone that I am not.            .

In doing this it’s easy to forget who we really are because we’ve been trying to be someone that we are not.

Is this the way God has called us to live?

No!  The reason it’s exhausting and unrealistic to meet everyone’s expectations is because

God did not intend us to.  The only expectations that we are to live up to are HIS and that is what He has and will equip us for.

Don’t wear yourself down and change who God wants you to be just so that you can try to please the people in your life.  After all, do you want the approval of man or the approval of God?

Who is it that you are trying to please?  Do you need to make some changes in your life?  Are you being the person that God has called you to be or are you trying to be who everyone else wants you to be?  Even those who with good intentions could have expectations that are unattainable because they are not those of God.

Dear Lord, thank You for allowing Your Word to be bold.  I pray that You would help each one of us to evaluate our lives to see who it is we are living for.  It’s my heart’s desire that we would live for You and You alone. Amen

© 2017 by Savannah Parvu. All rights reserved.

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