Seek only for the approval of God.

Number one of the Ten Commandments is you shall have no other god’s before or besides me.   This was the very first thing that came to my mind after reading James 5:44.  

In this verse Jesus is asking the Jews, who wanted to kill him for healing on the Sabbath.  How is it possible for you to believe, or learn to believe in me, or even God, when it is more important for you to have approval from men?   How can you grow in me, or the ways of my Father, when you are only worrying yourselves with the approval of your peers? 

After reading this I thought of the Ten Commandments and I feel like this is the same as putting someone else in front of God.   If we are living to please God than we wouldn’t be seeking the approval of the people around us.  We wouldn’t be worried about how the man standing beside me is going to look at me, if I am living my life upon God’s standards and not mans. 

Many times the rules in the world are the exact opposite of the standards of God.  To live in the approval of the world would mean living out of the approval of God.  There comes a time, when we acknowledge this, and are forced to make a decision on which way we want to travel.  

I think Jesus was saying to them, look, you have done enough and nothing I am saying to you is getting through to you.  Jesus is saying I don’t seek, crave the approval from another, my only source of approval is from my Father, and that should be your source as well. 

When you are putting emphasis on what the person beside you is saying and to win favor, credit, approval, and praise, from them, you are placing their opinion higher than the opinion of your God.  The first thing God asks us to do is to not have another god or god’s other than him.   Don’t think God doesn’t recognize this in your heart. 

Have you ever been asked to do something, maybe in a classroom setting, and your first concern was, what are the others going to think of me?  This is what God is telling us not to do.  When we are concerned with the opinions of others we are devaluing the opinion of the one whom matters, God’s.  

Jesus asked Peter to walk on water, and Peter fixed his eyes on Jesus, was locked in, and was not fearful, but the disciples were yelling at Peter to stay in the boat.  If Peter would have allowed their words to get into his thought process he would have never stepped out into the water.  Peter was in tuned with Jesus and only focused on him, which is exactly what God is asking us to do.  Focus on him and allow the world to become the backdrop to our lives.  

When Peter did step out into the stormy water, he was stepping out into Jesus’s protection so he didn’t sink.  He took a couple steps and then heard the voices behind him, and realized what he was doing and he began to doubt.  As soon as the seed of doubt comes into your mind you are no longer focusing on Jesus.  As soon as doubt entered, Peter sank into the stormy water.  In my head Jesus let him sink a little deeper than he should have to prove the point.  You were strong, you were connected, you were protected, until you allowed the voice of another(s) to get into your mind, and then you sank.  

God will sometimes allow that storm in your life to last longer than it should have to show you that you are not God in your life.  That the approval of others is not God in your life.  God wants you to understand that though you may say you surrender to God; this is what true surrender looks like.  True surrender is walking on water, without sinking. True surrender is sleeping on the floor of the boat while you are in the worst storm of your life.  True surrender does not believe the voices of others over the voice of your Lord.   

When you come to that place.  When a storm can come and rock the world around you but not move a hair out of place, then you have come to surrender.  We are to be steady; we are to be constant through the hills and valleys of our lives.  We should be able to sleep in the midst of a hurricane knowing that God told you that you are protected, and then you must be protected, because God’s voice is the voice you listen too.

I have been meditation on a phrase I read recently in a daily devotional, and it said, I know my Father’s Voice, and the voice of a stranger, I will not follow.  I will say this over and over to myself.  Sometimes I speak it aloud when I feel my mind has come under attack, which is often, and sometimes I just say it quietly to myself.  

I feel like this phrase, which I know to be Biblical, is in the same vein as John 5:44.  Jesus is saying know your Father’s voice over any other voice.  Search for your Father’s approval over any other approval given to you.   Now and recognize that your approval comes only from one source and that is your Father who is Heaven.  He is your daily portion and your living bread.

When we look to the world for approval and guidance we are saying the values of the world is where we put our faith, and that is not true.  We are to be lights in the world, but not of the world.  How can we glorify God and bring light into a dark place if our values and morals are equal to the dark place?   You have to be raised up to be light and receive light and to live by the conduct of the world is not being raised up.   

Now, in saying all of this, I need to say, that just because you don’t live in the world doesn’t mean that you are better than the world.  The difference is that you have found Christ and others have not, or have not fully surrendered their lives to Christ.   Don’t allow yourself to look down on people who don’t live their lives the way you do.  You are set apart, yes, that is correct, but you are set apart to show captives how to live out of bondage and in the freedom that is God.  If you look down on people of the world you are only reinforcing the behaviors they fear and want to distance themselves from.   

You are to be salt and light to the world and they should want and crave what you have, not vice versa. 

Next time you have a moment of fear, doubt, anxiety, or an emotion you know is not that of God, take a moment to look inside yourself at what you are thinking about, and if you are looking for the approval of men, or stepping out and living in the approval of God.