YOU NEED GOD’S APPROVAL

Luke 9: 18 “One day Jesus left the crowds to pray alone. Only His disciples were with Him, and He asked them, ‘who do people say I am?’”

I can’t say I know for certain why Jesus asked that question above but one thing is certain, the answer to the question would help Him ascertain the people’s perception of Him. How He chooses to respond to the information he receives becomes His prerogative. I believe it is good to, from time to time find out how people perceive you so that you can confirm that you are perceived in the way you should be perceived. If you are not coming across as you would like to, then you can make required behavioral adjustments to ensure correction of people’s perception of you.  

The fact of how one is perceived does not equate with gaining approval. People may perceive you correctly but not approve of you. Only one approval matters the most in life and that is God’s approval. This may sound very theological or spiritual but indeed it is truth. If you spend your life seeking the approval of men, it would cost you greatly and you will not fulfill your God given purpose. You would always be unstable and sad; unstable because, as you move from person to person, you will find that they all differ. What you do to gain one person’s approval may earn you another person’s disapproval so you would have to keeping changing depending on who you are with and you will end up very sad because at the end of the day, nobody is fulfilled till they become who God made to them to be. 

We are not all the same and can never be; we all just need to ensure that we are who God requires us to be at each point in time; fulfilling His purpose and giving Him pleasure. You don’t need men’s approval to succeed in life. No wonder the bible says, if a man’s ways please God, He will cause even His enemies to be at peace with Him. That does not necessarily mean the enemies will like Him, but they will be aware of the presence of His God in His life and would have no choice but to be at peace with Him. They will recognize that it will be in their best interest to be at peace with him. Nobody can always have men’s approval doing the will of God. 

Herod, a man who loved the adulation and approval of man, must have died a very sad man for killing John the Baptist. He had put him in jail because He did not want to hear what John had to say about him marrying his brother’s wife but could not kill him for fear of the people’s disapproval but ended up killing him for fear of the people’s disapproval again. He thought they would think lowly of him if he did not keep his oath to Herodias daughter but he is only a man and could have said explained that his promise did not include John’s head. I wonder how he felt when the head was finally presented on a plate. It may have been more honorable to have killed him for speaking against the king.

Mathew 14: 9-11 “then the king regretted what he had said; but because of the vow he had made in front of his guests, he issued the necessary orders. So John was beheaded in prison, and his head was brought on a tray and given to the girl, who took it to her mother,”

Life is about impressing God. If you impress God, you will impress the people you are required to impress. It is the most difficult thing to go against the general flow of people but some people are born to do that whilst others are not. You must seek to know your purpose and live your life fulfilling that purpose. You are born to be different.