Words of Wisdom: Seek God’s approval, not others’

These past couple of months have been overwhelming for me. When I get overwhelmed, my anxiety goes into overdrive. Sometimes as much as I pray and look to God I just can’t shake the anxiety. I have found myself seeking validation from people instead of God. We are all human. Seeking the validation of others is probably something we have all done from time to time. Some of us have a little thicker skin than others so it is easier to “not care what someone else thinks.” I am not one of these people. Although, my skin has gotten thicker over the years, I still find myself looking for validation.

I did a little bit of research and talking with God on this issue. In anything we do, we should seek God’s approval first. There is nothing wrong with wanting approval from others but, if it is overpowering your seeking approval from God, it becomes sin. The more you are praising God, through song, worship, prayer, giving him thanks in all things, you will automatically want to please him first.

Once you get to a point of automatically wanting to please God first in all things, you will eventually realize that validation from anyone else is irrelevant. It doesn’t matter if you are pleasing others or not, as long as you know God is pleased. If you know God is pleased with you and others are not, they probably need to take a look at themselves. There is no reason at all for anyone to not be pleased with you if you know you are pleasing God. That is on them not you!

Think of how different the world would be if everyone was seeking the validation of God before people. We would see the works of God everywhere. In turn, everyone would have validation from people. We would all be of one accord doing the works of God together and Oh how pleased he would be.

Remember this, People will always have an opinion of you, but you live your life for the Lord, not people. The opinion of others is irrelevant when you know you are in the center of God’s will. At the end of the day God is the only one that can satisfy your heart, therefore, He is the only one you need to please.

“For am I now seeking the approval of man or God? Am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ.” Galatians 1:10

Whitney Buzbee writes for Bibb Community Media.