By Rae Lynn DeAngelis
One word from God is worth more than a hundred atta-girls from others. ~Glennis Whitwer
So true! Nothing compares to receiving affirmation from God… and this comes from a girl who’s lived most of her life in bondage to people-pleasing. I won’t lie; I still fall prey to this mindset at times, but the closer I grow in my relationship with Jesus the more I seek to please God—not man.
“Am I now trying to win the approval of men, or of God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ.” (Galatians 1:10)
People are fickle! One day you can be a hero and the next day a zero. Trying to win over people is a fleeting and futile cause. But when we seek to please God, the effects are eternal.
“When a man’s ways are pleasing to the Lord, he makes even his enemies live at peace with him.” (Proverbs 16:7)
What I appreciate most about God’s atta-girls is the fact that His love is not hinged on His approval of us. God’s love is a gift; it’s not something we earn by our actions. God does not love us more or less by our adherence or negligence of His ways. This is great news! But it is also a foreign concept for us to grasp, especially since this is not how the earthly realm works.
My desire to please God comes from my love for Him, but pleasing God will not ever result in getting love from Him. God loves us no matter what! We can do nothing to earn it.
Love is who God is – not what He does.
Because we have been brainwashed by the ways of this broken world, we have a hard time conceptualizing unconditional, unmerited, undeserved love. The closest we can come to grasping God’s agape love is the relationship we witness between a parent and child. And even this example falls short as a suitable illustration.
God loves us, period! The desire that we have in our hearts to please our Heavenly Father should only come from our soul’s yearning to love Him in return.
“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.” (Mark 12:30)
