Linda Bailey is currently away. Her new devotionals will begin again on the 1st February, 2010. In the meantime, here is a Daily Devotion that has been significant for one of my readers..

You can look through every single verse but the Bible will not tell you to go out of your way to make everyone else happy.

Galatians 1:1-24

Reference:  v.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. (NIV Bible)

Explore:   You just can't please everyone!  A friend of mine told me about a terrible day she had a few weeks ago.  Robyn was supposed to leave work early to pick up her daughter from school so they could get her ready for her formal.  But Robyn got stuck in a meeting and didn't leave on time as she was trying to please her colleagues.  Even as she was running out the door of her office she stopped to sign some cheques for the bursar to please him too.  Even though her daughter was very upset with her running late, Robyn raced around the house trying to help her daughter get ready for her big night.  As Robyn was ushering her daughter out the door her son asked to borrow her computer.  She had forgotten to pick up her computer after signing the cheques for the bursar so she drove all the way back to work, after dropping her daughter off at her formal, just to pick up her computer to please her son.  Because of all this running around Robyn had totally forgotten about a social event her partner had invited her to and so even though she had done her best to please everyone she ended up not really pleasing anyway and hurting the person who loves her the most!  Oh dear, what a day!  Sometimes our lives can feel like that too.  We try our best to please everyone only to have everything blow up in our faces.

Explore:  The Bible never tells us to please other people.  You can look through every single verse and it will not tell you to go out of your way to make everyone else happy.  It does say that we should do our best to please God though.  If we are worried about pleasing other people, we need to change our priorities and put all of our focus on pleasing God.  He is the most important element in our lives.  When we please God we may not be pleasing everyone around us, but we are staying in tune with the reason we were created.  God creates us, He saves us and He gives us life.  The only applause we should be seeking is those of nail-scarred hands.

Prayer:  Lord, it is so tempting to do our best to please other people.  Help me Lord to only focus on pleasing You so that I can be a true servant of Christ.  Amen.

What is a way that you can please God today?