Man Pleaser or God Pleaser?

Galatians 1:10

 For do I now persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men?

 for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ.

In following on from my last post, “Get Excited”, I wanted to look at something that each and everyone of us has to struggle with almost every day. The choice we make to be a man-pleaser or a God-pleaser. 

As I wrote about worshipping the Lord through song and singing heartily to the Lord and getting excited by the messages that are found in the hymns and choruses we sing, I began to think about the many times we become afraid to follow God’s leading because of the fear of man. 

We are naturally bent towards pleasing man. But God would have us focus on pleasing Him. The actual word “menpleasers” is only found twice in scripture. In Ephesians and in Colossians. 

Ephesians 6:6 Not with eyeservice, as menpleasers; but as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart;

Colossians 3:22 Servants, obey in all things your masters according to the flesh; not with eyeservice, as menpleasers; but in singleness of heart, fearing God:

It has the meaning of, ‘studying to please man, courting the favour of men’.  

I sometimes think that we as women, are more prone to be man pleasers.  For some reason, we seem to care a whole lot more about what people think about us than men do. I know that’s not always the case, but you have only to look at Instagram and Facebook and other social media platforms to see that there are a lot of people out there seeking man’s favour and appreciation. We’re worried about our weight. Our hair. Our clothes. The way people see our families. The expectations of others weighs heavily upon our shoulders. We have become man pleasers. 

I am saddened to think that we have become such a generation of lovers of self and pleasers of man that we have forgotten the One who we should be striving to please. God. He is the one we ought to be looking to for favour and appreciation and love and attention. 

We are often afraid to be ourselves for fear others will laugh or mock. We’re afraid to sing out wholeheartedly to the Lord. We’re afraid to speak up for the Lord publicly, even though we know it’s the right thing to do. We’re afraid to pray in front of others, worried that if we truly prayed with our whole hearts and talked to the Lord as we do privately, some may laugh and think we’re over the top and too charismatic. I’m not joking here, it is a very real thing in prayer meetings all over the world. We feel inadequate and think that our prayers are not as polished as the veteran Christian praying with us. Maybe we think we need to use more ‘thees’ and ‘thous’. You know what I say? Who cares? As long as God is happy with my prayer and it is prayed sincerely and from my heart unto Him, then I don’t care what you think of my delivery and my emotion that flows from my heart and out of my mouth. 

That may sound callous and unfeeling and I don’t mean to offend, but I think it’s time we stopped worrying about what others think and start being concerned about what God thinks!

I’m so glad that God sees our hearts.  I’m so glad that I can strive to be a God pleaser and not be afraid of what others think. Yes, it’s taken many years to get to this point, and of course there are still times that I hold back because of the fear of man, but there, in the back of my mind, I remember that I ought to obey God rather than men and that I really want His favour and His blessing on my life. It’s more important to me that I be concerned with what God thinks of me rather than what others think of me. 

And you know an amazing thing? By striving to please God, you will please who He wants you to please. In obeying God, we end up pleasing who we should please and not who we think we should be pleasing. Does that make sense? 

Don’t be overly concerned with pleasing others. But DO be overly concerned with pleasing God. Make it your wholehearted desire to please God in all things. In everything you do. Don’t think about what others may think. If you know you are doing what God wants you to do, then let go of the notion that you need ‘likes’ and ‘thumbs up’ and praise for all you do. 

John 12:42-43 Nevertheless among the chief rulers also many believed on him; but because of the Pharisees they did not confess him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue: For they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God.

Notice here in this passage that many believed on the Lord but would not confess Him because of the fear of man. The loved the praise of men just too much! Does that bring to mind anything in your life lately that you have held back from because of wanting praise and knowing that if you did that thing, you wouldn’t get the praise you craved? 

Proverbs 16:7 When a man's ways please the LORD, he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him.

This verse in Proverbs reminds us that if we are busy pleasing the Lord, even our enemies become our friends. How does that work? I don’t understand how the Lord works sometimes or even what exactly He means by what He says in His Word, but I do know, that I don’t have to understand it all, I only have to obey! 

Now, I do have to say a little here on care for others, just in case you are thinking that I am uncaring and heartless. We do have to have care for others and we need to love others. We have to be careful that we don’t cause others to stumble and we need to show love and compassion. We don’t want to have an “I don’t care” attitude when it comes to showing love, but we should have an “I don’t care what others think as long as I am doing what the Lord wants me to do and doing it with love” attitude! 

What relationship is the most important to you? Is it your followers on Instagram? Is it your family? Or is it God? If your heart is truly focused on your relationship with God, then what others think of you will become less and less important and what God thinks of you will become more and more important. Pleasing God will take centre stage. The accolades of others will fade into the background. As you draw closer to Him, all the other voices will not matter. Yes, they will still scream for attention, but you will able to silence them as you step out in obedience to Christ. 

So, when you sing at church, when you dress differently than others because you care about modesty, when you speak out about what God has done in your life, do it wholeheartedly! Don’t worry about what others think. Don’t let others dictate to you how you should act. Let the Lord be the ultimate guide and judge. Let Him be the one you follow. Let Him be the one you listen to. Let His voice override all other voices. Listen for His still, small voice amongst the clamour of the world. Tune your heart to Him. Focus on your relationship with Him. Draw close to Him. The closer you are to Him the easier it will be to hear His voice. 

Be a God pleaser NOT a man pleaser!