Be a God pleaser

UV 374/10,000 Galatians 1 v 10 Be a God pleaser Gal 1:10 For do I now persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ. As godly leaders, we are called not to be man-pleasers but God-pleasers. Scripture uses the word,” eye-pleaser” for a person who seeks to please his earthly boss. As long as the boss’ s eye is upon him, he would be at his best but the moment the boss is absent, his true colours would be visible. But, Christ knows our every thought and emotion. We cannot just do lip service to Him and then do as we please. We are called to Trust, Obey, Learn and Love from our hearts. If Jesus is the bridge connecting the temporal and the spiritual, the temporary and the eternal, this is the TOLL we need to pay to traverse that bridge. The world knows only two categories of leaders: good and great. Scripture asks us to transcend the levels from good to great to godly. As servants of Christ,we are to imitate Him in all our ways. St Paul wrote, “ Imitate me even as I imitate Christ.” St Paul never tried to please even St Peter and the other apostles. St Paul recognized that being a servant of Christ meant that one would not be very popular with others. His only motivation was to win the commendation of the Lord: “ Well done, you good and faithful servant.” The Lord has often encouraged me by saying, “ You are a God pleaser, not a man-pleaser. You are a simple servant.” Many people start off as servants but as they grow in stature and the size of their ministry and influence, they become too busy even for the Lord to approach them. They compete with the men of the world in pomp and paraphernalia, in protocol and in the number of layers that one need to go through in order to reach them. The leader aspect in the “ servant-leader” model is emphasized and the “ servant” aspect is given the go by. Prateep V Philip