A thought by Rick Warren from his book, God's Answers to Life's Difficult Questions (Living with Purpose) (p. 13). Zondervan. Kindle Edition. (Click on the book title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.)
It sounds like us, especially at this time of the year.
Rick says, “There were grueling demands on his time; he rarely had any personal privacy; he was constantly interrupted. People repeatedly misunderstood him, criticized him, and ridiculed him. He had enormous stress, which would have caused any of us to cave in.”
And some of you are feeling so much stress at trying to please all of the people in your life. You want them to be so happy and like you.
Rick says that one of the principles that Jesus lived by in his handling stress was the principle, “Know whom you’re trying to please.”
He goes on, “You can’t please everybody, because, by the time one group becomes pleased with you, another group gets upset with you. Even God doesn’t please everybody, so it’s foolish to try to do something that even God doesn’t do!
“Jesus knew whom he was trying to please; it was a settled issue with him: ‘I’m going to please God the Father.’ And the Father replied, ‘This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased’ (Matt. 3:17 KJV).”
Rick continues, “When you don’t know whom you’re trying to please, you cave in to three things: criticism (because you are concerned about what others will think of you), competition (because you worry about whether somebody else is getting ahead of you), and conflict (because you’re threatened when anyone disagrees with you). If I ‘seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness,’ then all the other necessary things of life will be added unto me (Matt. 6:33 KJV). This means that if I focus on pleasing God, it will simplify my life. I will always be doing the right thing—the thing that pleases God—regardless of what anybody else thinks.”
He then says, “We love to blame our stress on other people and obligations: ‘You made me … I have to … I’ve got to.” Actually, there are few things in life (apart from our jobs) that we must do. When we say, ‘I have to, I must, I’ve got to,’ we may really be saying, ‘I choose to because I don’t want to pay the consequences.’ Hardly anybody makes us do anything, so usually, we can’t blame other people for our stress. When we feel pressure, we are choosing to allow other people to put us under pressure. We are not victims unless we allow ourselves to be pressured by other people’s demands.
Let’s enjoy Christmas this year. Let’s strive this year to show God how much we really appreciate the gift he gave us. Would you do that?
Yes, yes!
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