The Praise of Men or the Praise of God?

 We all want to be loved by other people. We want to be accepted by others, so that we feel a part of a group. One of the worst feelings is when we feel left out and unwanted. We often suffer a lot of negative feelings when we are rejected by others, especially those in our family or others close to us. Because of these feelings, we say and do things that we feel like we need to do to receive this approval, acceptance, and love.

However, we need to be very careful about how we handle ourselves in our relationships with others. We can get too dependent on the love and acceptance of others. Jesus saw that happen with the Jewish leaders who believed in Him, but they would not tell others publicly. (John 12:43) They would not do that because they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God. Now that is truly a terrible place for any of us to be in life.

Yes, we need love, friends, and community. Those things were designed by God so that we can live well. However, we must not love the praise of people more than the praise of God. We must realize that it is the acceptance by God that matters most. He is the greatest friend and the most influential supporter we could ever have. Therefore, we must decide that we are going to live for the praise of God, first and foremost everyday, so we do His will and do it very well.

If we love the praise of men more than the praise of God, we will be quiet about God when we are around those who don't believe in Him. We will compromise on our beliefs and our commitments to the Lord, so those around us who do not believe in those things will be happy with us. As you can see the love for the praise of men leads to all kinds of sins, and it causes us not to be pleasing to God. Choosing to love God's praise the most is one of the best choices we can ever make.

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Tomorrow, I intend to read John 13-15.