Seeking the Kingdom: Aiming to Please God
What would happen if I stopped judging myself?
What if I just aimed to please God?
I wouldn’t have to worry about how many actual people saw my posts, or listened to my music. If my aim in writing is to see my Papa-God smile, it doesn’t (and won’t) matter whether anyone else sees what I have written. What a relief that would be!
I would not need to be assessing the “success” of my ministry by counting “victory stories,’ or website hits. I would not need to be alarmed by complaints about my choices in songs or orchestration. I would not even need to give attention to whether someone might be offended by the state of my kitchen floor!
It is not that those things are not important or relevant, but if my aim is to please God, I do not even need to assess the results of my work. That’s His job! I can only assess my attitude, my intention. (And I need the Holy Spirit to do that!)
Maybe that was Johann Sebastian Bach’s secret to his prolific composition life… His whole aim was to give glory to God.
Can I write for the glory of God — to please Him alone? Not myself or my readers?
Can I keep my house in a way that makes Him smile? Not to please my conscience, which was trained by my mother…
And what about my relationships? Can I love and serve those around me with my eye on His face, and not merely to make sure that everyone around is happy with me?
Most of us were trained by parents to believe that our behavior was responsible for their happiness. Romantic stories trick us into believing that the ultimate goal in marriage is to be happy and make the spouse happy. That makes everything about us!
I am not suggesting that it is okay to tromp with spiked boots on the hearts of those around me, nor let trash pile up so that the germs, bugs and rodents give my house a four-star rating on Yelp, but that, as Paul says, my aim needs to be to please God, not Martha Stewart.
If I am aiming to please Him, I will do my work (whatever it is) with my whole heart, and I will love those in my path with His love! That’s what pleases Him. That’s what makes Him smile.
Lord, let that be my aim!
Still following Jesus every day in the everyday!
Christi
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