One purpose

"Thou are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created."  Revelation 4:11

"For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure."  - Philippians 2:13

"Then Peter and the other apostles answered and said, We ought to obey God rather than men."  Acts 5:29

The entire reason I was created was to bring Him pleasure.  To please Him.  The top priority is not to make money, not to do good, it's not even to be happy.  The top priority is to please Him.

It has to remain my top priority.  Every year, every month, every week, every day, every hour, every moment, I need to be focused on doing what He wants me to do.  I need to be focused on doing what He created me to do.  I need to focus on pleasing Him and Him alone.

I struggle with that.  Not that I don't strive to please Him, because I do.  I pray every day to see the opportunities He brings me to please Him.  But I struggle with keeping the focus on pleasing Him first and foremost.

I am a people-pleaser.  I enjoy making people happy.  (honestly, who doesn't?) But it's not right and its not a good thing when I aim to please people before I aim to please my Savior.

God has been teaching me that lately.  He's been making verses pop out at me, like the 3 verses above.  He's been showing me situations in my life recently when I made it a greater priority to please people before pleasing Him.

It's shameful to look back on my actions in the past few months and see myself doing that.  Shameful but needful.

For the past month or so, verses about "serving God rather than serving men" have been leaping off the page.  God is trying to drill into my think head and my stony heart that I need to not be so focused and consumed with what others think - the only thing that matters is what He thinks.

He knows how much I struggle with that.  I had some big decisions to make recently and I feel as though I asked anyone and everyone for their opinion.  I just wanted someone to tell me what to do.  I don't make decisions very well.  I flip-flop.  I can't commit.  I think "road A" is the right decision and an hour later, after rolling it around and around my mind, "road B" seems to be the clear choice.

Ugh.

I hate that about myself.  It drives me nuts.

But the first person I took it to was the Lord and I made the decision I felt He wanted me to make.  Even though I know some may disagree with it.  Even though some may think it was the easy choice (which by the way, it wasn't) or the safe choice, it's what I believe God wanted and I hope He is pleased.

What I want - doesn't matter.  What other people think is right for me - doesn't matter.  He created me.  He loves me.  He gave his life for me.  He has a plan and a will for my life and that is what I desire more than anything.  My greatest desire is to do what He created me to do.

"Thou are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created."  Revelation 4:11