In Galatians 1:10, the apostle Paul makes a very bold statement. He said "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." Paul is saying, "If I put pleasing man at the top of my priority list, than my motive for doing things is out of line!" There is a great lesson to be learned from what Paul said. You see, I can be doing all the right things and appear to be God's man of the hour! If, however, my reason for doing those "right things" is to look good in front of people, I'm simply wasting a lot of time! My attitude should be to do the things I do out of a love for God and His purposes in this earth; even if nobody ever sees me doing them!

I'm fairly certain that not too many people saw young David kill the lion and the bear while guarding the flock of sheep. It wasn't in the local newspaper the next day! David simply was being faithful to do what he was called to do; protect the sheep! God took that kind of attitude and promoted the lion killer into a giant killer. The psalms that David wrote and sang came out of a heart of worship for God, not because he wanted them to make number one on the Jerusalem Top 40 list! The results were that we still sing and read them to this very day!

I'm sure you see the point. Motive is everything. Certainly I desire to please men in the things that I do, but not at the expense of displeasing my Heavenly Father. Have a great week!

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