Audience of One

I have always loved the song by Big Daddy Weave: AUDIENCE OF ONE. Do I really believe I have only one person to please, that my audience consists of one person?  How easily I find I can slip into the approval of everyone else but Him.  Recently God has been confirming to me over and over that I need to care about what He thinks above all else.  I was hanging out with a dear friend lately, who gave some great advice to her son.

He came up to us while we were sipping our sweet tea (this weather has been incredible).  "Mommy, they keep calling me the bad guy!"  To which she replied "Buddy, you know you are a good guy, so don't listen to what they say about you, just remember I say that you are a good.  Just ignore them, and know that you are a good guy, it doesn't matter what they say."  He ran off and played and decided not to listen to the false things that were being said.  God spoke to me. "You need to know that!  No matter what people say, know that I say you are a "good guy".  I am the only opinion that matters."  AMEN!!

I turned on the radio 3 days after that incident to find a fun song to rock out to with my kiddos.  We love turning the radio up and singing at the top of our lungs, even Emma joins in, with "good bye, good bye, good bye" LOL.  I found a sermon on and was just about to pop in a cd when the pastor said  "We live among a people starved for attention."  He said "They will get it any way they can, and that usually comes in the form of people pleasing.  People do whatever they can to fit in, to gain approval by whoever will accept them.  This is why people join gangs, fraternities, try drugs, gossip, among many other things..... they are starved for approval and to feel accepted and loved."  He finished by saying "Seeking the approval of other people enslaves you.  You are in chains to the last opinion you hear of you or person you are trying to please."  I thought it was so true and so interesting because God has been showing me just this week that His is the only approval we need.

I wanted to share a few verses I found on the subject:

Fear of man will prove to be a snare, but whoever trusts in the LORD is kept safe.  Proverbs 29:25

Am I now trying to win the approval of men, or of God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ.  Galatians 1:10

On the contrary, we speak as men approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel. We are not trying to please men but God, who tests our hearts....We were not looking for praise from men, not from you or anyone else 1 thess 2:4, 6a

So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it.  Since, then, we know what it is to fear the Lord, we try to persuade men.... What we are is plain to God, and I hope it is also plain to your conscience. 2 cor 5:9&11

This week I have been making it my goal to live for Christ, for His purposes for me, to follow Him alone, and to throw off everything else.  I need approval from Him alone, and when I get that in my heart and mind, and put on my Helmet of Salvation the battle in my mind begins to cease.  To be approved by just one person is much more simple than pleasing everyone and being enslaved by their opinions of me.  I would rather just care about Jesus' opinion of me.  When my focus is on His validation alone there is glorious freedom.  "It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery." Galatians 5:1