The Bible does say that there is a trap we have to watch out for. This trap is when you are overly concerned about what other people think of you.

Lot of people live their lives in such a way that they will find favor with people or they live their lives in such way that they always please people just so that they can be liked they can be loved, they can be approved of.

But the Bible says that this is a trap. Watch in Proverbs 29 verse 25 it says “The fear of man or the fear of being rejected by man brings a snare. But whoever trusts in the Lord shall be safe”. Other translation says that even clearer. It says “It is a dangerous trap to be concerned about what other people think of you. But if you trust the Lord, you are safe”.

When we are preoccupied with gaining favor from other people and we live our lives towards attempting to find other people’s approval instead of God’s approval. What we do without knowing is we destroy two of the pillars our life is built upon. Let me show you which two pillars those are and why this is so dangerous.

The 1st pillar we destroy unknowingly so when we seek the approval of man instead of God is the PURPOSES that God has for us. If you think about it. If I’m always playing towards what others want from me How can i fulfill what God wants for me? If I’m always seeking man’s approval How can I at the same time find God’s approval? If I always want man to celebrate me how can I please God? You can have one or the other but you cannot have both.

In 1st Thessalonians 2 verse 4 the Bible says that “they spoke as men approved of by God”. But oftentimes we speak to people in order to be approved of by man. We have to watch out if we are overly concerned with what other people think of us then we will lose sight of God’s purposes in our lives because for most part
if you are going to do what God calls for you to do a lot of people are not going to be happy about it but you are going have to make peace with that if you want God’s purposes for your life.

The 2nd pillar we destroy is our FAITH. you might say well Jacques “how is this possible?”. Let me explain to you how I connected the dots. I’ll give you a definition of faith. Faith is when I put ultimate value on what God has said. When I do that I automatically put less value in what everybody else says about me.
In the same way if I put the highest value in what others think or say about me. I automatically diminish the value of what God has said about me and what God thinks about me. This is exactly what happened in the Garden of Eden the snake comes to Eve. And when Eve started valuing what the snake was saying She automatically started diminishing the value on what God told her to do. So this is how we have to watch out when we have a unnatural preoccupation with attempting to please others and we live towards finding their approval.

We don’t realize that but we destroy God’s purpose in our lives. and we destroy the faith that we have with God. The Bible says that the only way for us to please God is by our faith in what He has said. I’m going to close today with a statement made by Spurgeon. He said, “he who fears God has nothing else to fear”.

I pray the same for you.

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