A Journey to Joy by Joy Buerkle

Author:Joy Buerkle [Buerkle, Joy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781664281820
Publisher: WestBow Press
Published: 2022-10-26T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 11

PEOPLE PLEASING

A s soon as you begin to get on the right track, the

enemy will do anything he can to distract you. The devil wants us to live for anyone other than our heavenly Father. When we start to care about someone’s love, opinion, or approval more than God’s, then that person becomes an idol in our lives. The Bible tells us in Exodus 20:3 (NIV): “You shall have no other gods before me.” Jesus lived for an audience of one, and we must do the same.

Galatians 1:10 (NIV) says: “Am I now trying to win the approval of human beings, or of God? Or am I trying to please people? If I were trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ.” Jesus’ disciple Peter denied Jesus because he was concerned about others and the disapproval of the crowd. When God’s approval matters most to us, then people will lose the grip they have over our lives. Psalm 118:8 (NLT) says: “It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in people.”

God shaped us to need each other. There is a spiritual gift of encouragement, and it’s essential to development, but the desire for approval can be misused and become an obsession. It can consume our time and happiness. The desire for approval is the fear of disapproval, and it’s a common reason that people get detoured and live in depression. We want to be considerate of others, but we cannot live under the stress of worrying about making everyone happy. Ephesians 5:10 (NLT) says: “Carefully determine what pleases the Lord,” and Proverbs 16:7 (NLT) says: “When people’s lives please the Lord, even their enemies are at peace with them.”

After I experienced my first miscarriage, I began depending on family and friends around me for comfort. I was in a very vulnerable season as I was experiencing postpartum depression and anxiety without even realizing it until after the fact. It took several months for my hormone levels to return to normal, which means that it took a long time for my body to recognize that it wasn’t pregnant anymore. When we expect other people to comfort us in the way we need, it will always set us up for disappointment. It’s also not fair to put that kind of responsibility on someone; they will not have the ability to fully meet our needs. When we depend on someone to be there for us and tell us what we need to hear and to comfort us the way we need to be comforted, then we are asking them to do something that only God can do.

When we are in God’s word and going to our heavenly Father first and foremost, then we can be more prepared when people unintentionally say hurtful things during our challenging seasons. God’s word is our sword, and when we know God’s truth about us, then we will have the true comfort we need during our darkest days. The

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