I ran across this post today while blog surfing.  Perry Noble is Pastor of Newspring Church, and is doing a fantastic job!  I should say, and he would also say this, God has His hand on Perry and His church.  They are doing things for Jesus that are just incredible!  In his blog, Perry likes to posts lists.  This morning, he started a list titled “”Six Questions I Try To Keep In Front Of Me.”  The second one on the list caught my eye this morning…

Am I More Concerned About God Or Others? Scripture is very clear, “Do your best to present yourself to God…” When “the end” is here I will stand before God and will NOT answer as to… Whether or not I kept people happy. Whether or not I appeased the bloggers. Whether or not I preached sermons that people WANTED to hear. I will answer for whether or not I was faithful to WHO He called me to be and WHAT He called me to do! I have a quote hanging in my office by Craig Groeschel that says, “The quickest way to forget what God says about me is to become obsessed with what others say about me.” SO TRUE! When my head hits the pillow at night I’ve got to know that I have tried my best to honor HIM and HIS calling on my life…which IS NOT EASY in a world where everyone seems to have an opinion and a website! BUT…focusing on them doesn’t allow me to focus on Him! (BTW…it isn’t helping you either!!!) Paul said it best in Galatians 1:10…we have a choice…I have made mine and will not look back…there is way too much at stake!

Everyone that has ever been involved in ministry, whether full-time or as a volunteer knows that you will NEVER make everyone happy… it is impossible!  Jesus did not even do that!  What we have to guard from is holding people’s opinions about us higher than we do God’s design and desire for us… that is hard, especially when you are a people-pleaser by nature.  Honestly, that is something that I fight constantly!  Here is the deal though, until we are being who God created us to be, we will never reach our full potential, and we will not be satisfied.  Once we realize who God made us to be, and start living it, our focus will shift to that of pleasing Him, and not people.  We will be more concerned with reaching people than we are keeping people.  Trying to keep people is an act of desperation… reaching people keeps things alive and Christ-centered.

Just something to chew on today… thanks Perry!