Just who are you trying to please?

For do I now persuade men, or God? Or do I seek to please men? 

For if I still pleased men, I would not be a bondservant of Christ.

Galatians 1:10

At times you will have to make a choice between pleasing God and pleasing those around you, for God's ways are not man's ways (Isa. 55:8–9). As important as it is to strive for good relations with others, it is even more important to maintain a steadfast and obedient relationship with Christ. Disobeying God to keep peace with other people is never wise. Peace with God is always paramount.

Jesus warned that obeying Him might cause division in your relationships (Matt. 10:35–36). If Paul's primary goal had been to please others, he would never have become an apostle of Jesus Christ. Paul went completely against the wishes of his colleagues in order to obey Christ. At times, obedience to God sets family members at odds with each other (Matt. 10:35–36). When you follow Jesus’ lordship, your family may misunderstand, or even oppose you, yet your obedience to God reflects your identity as His child. Jesus said that those who obey His will are His brothers and sisters (Luke 8:21). God does not intend to divide the home, but He places obedience before domestic harmony.

It is important to get alone in quietness with God so that you understand what pleases Him. The world's thinking will mislead you more easily when you are not clear about what God desires. It broke Peter's heart to know that the opinion of a servant girl had mattered more to him than the approval of his Lord! If the desire to appease others tempts you to compromise what you know God wants you to do, learn from Peter's mistake. Determine that you will please your Lord regardless of the opinions of others.

- Blackaby Experiencing God Day by Day 

Our greatest of choices isn't what clothes to wear, what tasks need accomplished, nor what food to eat.  It's not about the decisions in that we face in this life, save one: are we in a right relationship with Jesus or not?

So much is being said in the social media world about rights, privileges and responsibilities.  Where to lay the blame for what the world is going through.  Blaming Christians, burning Bibles.  Blaming the Police, destroying Police equipment and buildings. Blaming 150 to 200 year old statues of people for modern day issues. Relationships are being torn apart.  So people look for who to blame. 

Sin is ultimately to blame and there's only one cure for it.  Sin is at the root of all evil.  Sin caused mankind to fall, caused Cain to murder his brother.  Caused every woe that has broken mankind's relationship with God. The chasm between God and Man was connected at the Cross.  Not through legislation not through policy or political measures.  

You cannot find any other way to provide lasting peace apart from a right relationship with Jesus Christ. 

Compromising is what was warned about in the early Church.  That if and when they would,  it would cause many a Church to close its doors.  None of the Churches in Revelation survived.  The Churches in the New Testament, should any shred of their names exist today, aren't even a shadow of what they began as 2 thousand years ago. 

Which, brings the statement of Jesus to bear on our generation. Would He find the faith when He returns?  My friend the faith is waning badly.  Churches are allowing so much compromise to try to attract people in.  They even have marketing teams and tools to do so.  They have watered down the Gospel in order to not offend people.  Read the letters to the Churches...the light of Christ is not found in those places.  Those are dead husks of Churches.  No different than what Jesus spoke of concerning empty tombs full of dead men's bones.  

To live for Jesus is likely going to pit you against a world that wants nothing to do with Him.  It's going to cause separation in relationships with others who are not believing in Christ.  It's going to be stressful.  It's going to be hard.  Compromise is not the answer.  Prayer is the answer.  

So many have neutered the power of God.   They continue to push compromises rather than ask God to do what must be done.  So many have not been taught, on purpose, how to have a right relationship with Jesus!  They have been brought to Christ then left to fend for themselves.  So they get disillusioned and fall away.  How can that be said?  Look at what Jesus said of the scattering of the seed.  Look at the soil it finds.  Look at the results He said would happen.  

Who are you trying to please?  I can't go to a grocery store without watching so-called parents placating their children.  Giving them whatever it takes to get them to obey.  Which is both wrong and is teaching that compromising is a way of life!  What we see in America and around the world aren't necessarily protesters, but spoiled people who never recieved the discipline they should have received as a child. 

Who are you trying to please? Because if it's not Jesus, if it's not God the Father, or God the Holy Spirit, then you are likely compromising in your life in some degree rather than living in obedience. 

It's likely going to hurt to obey.  Scripture says that discipline for the moment is not joyful but it later it produces righteousness and peace. Hebrews 12:11.

Go farther still.  We are called to stand firm in the faith.  Put on the full armor of God and stand firm.  Are you?

My friend life is hard and it only gets harder the farther mankind gets from Christ.  Time and again in the Old Testament it's seen what happens when Israel disobeyed and when they turned and repented.  

Who are you trying to please? Yourself? Others?  As long as there is the breath of life there's hope for repentance.  The time to return to Christ is now. The time to live in obedience is now. The time to seek a right relationship with Jesus is now.