Our family has had many talks around the dinner table over the years about peer pressure and doing what’s right no matter what others are doing. Years ago we’d even make up scenarios and role-play them, my husband and I acting the part of trying to tempt them to bad behavior. They always had the right response in those situations, but now that they’re older, they’ve seen that it’s not so easy to walk out. The inclination to go along, to please others, seems to go hand in hand with adolescence.
Funny—not much changes in adulthood. When we’re teaching our kids these lessons, we might as well be talking to ourselves too. Being a people-pleaser isn’t unique to being a teenager; it’s a desire of the flesh. The flesh wants to be liked. It wants to say things that are well-received and do things that don’t make waves—and we know that the truth of God’s Word has been known to make waves!
But we can’t please God in the flesh (Romans 8:8). We’re to die to the flesh and live by the Spirit, which means living to please God, not others. “For am I now seeking the favor of men, or of God? Or am I striving to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a bond-servant of Christ” (Galatians 1:10).
I’ll bet most of us know this. Still, that tension creeps in from time to time—even in Christian relationships and in Christian ministry—where we have to ask ourselves, “Whom am I trying to please?” “Am I not speaking truth because someone won’t like it?” “Am I not taking a stand because I might end up standing alone?”
As long as we walk this earth in this flesh, we’ll be tempted to please man rather than God, but let’s pray hard not to yield to it. Only one Person died for us. Only One has set us free from sin and death. Jesus died that we might live—for Him.
Heavenly Father, I confess that I’m tempted at times to walk by the flesh and please man rather than You. Strengthen me, Father. Help me to live to please You and You alone, to be a bond-servant for Jesus Christ, in His name, Amen.
