Approval

I want to be liked. I want people to think I am clever, intuitive, funny, friendly. I get a small rush at a compliment. I have often said that I don't need the reward of high pay or a promotion, just compliment my work and I'll do it for free.

I have spent so much of my life seeking the approval of others all the while hiding dark sin in my life. Even the sin was an attempt to get approval! The struggle was that everybody wanted something different. So to gain my parents' approval, I needed to be one way. To get men's approval, I had to be another way. To get this friend's or that friend's approval, I had yet another set of standards to discover. Often these things were competing with seeking my own pleasure and I ended up in a mess of lies and a chameleon-like behavior that I didn't even know who the real me was anymore.

I could blend with any crowd ... from righteous Christians to dope-smoking Atheists. I could make everyone feel comfortable, say the right things, act the right way and then the reward ... APPROVAL! They like me! Or at least they like who they think I am.

For almost 30 years, I walked around trying to figure out what people wanted and then give them that, never asking myself does God approve.

Paul wrote in the book of Galatians 1:10, "Obviously, I'm not trying to win the approval of people, but of God. If pleasing people were my goal, I would not be Christ's servant." Someone shared in a Bible-study recently where she read that a good question to ask yourself in every situation is, "Am I acting out of fear of man or fear of God?" I think another question should be, "Am I seeking the approval of man or the approval of God?"

The greatest freedom I have experienced in my life came when I stopped the charade,took off all the different skin I had worn and told my whole ugly story, trusting God in His promises to forgive and to restore, seeking only His approval and His glory. I don't have to own my stuff anymore. I get to leave it on the altar of grace, embrace who God made me to be, and walk on, approved by God, for His glory. I can be honest. I can be real. I can be loud. I can be scared. I can be sad. I can be a faulty human being learning to walk by faith. Because God gets me and He approves of me because of Christ.

God asks us to love like He loved. If I seek God's approval, I will always act in the interest of love. Is this the most loving response to this situation? Is this the best way to love this person?

Seeking God's approval simplifies life.