What Others Say

ByJim Stephens

Scripture: Romans 2

Being a Jew won’t give you an automatic stamp of approval. God pays no attention to what others say (or what you think) about you. He makes up his own mind. (Romans 2:11 MSG)

The need and desire for approval is hard-wired into our human nature. If our approval need quotient is healthy, we’re free to simply enjoy approval when we get it. If our approval need quotient is too high, we might do whatever it takes—even losing our own identity—to gain approval. If our approval need quotient gets twisted, we may rebel and drown ourselves in disapproval.

God pays no attention to what others think or say about us. God isn’t even affected by our opinion of ourselves. He makes up his own mind about us.

To fully experience and enjoy the overwhelming blessing of God’s approval I must:

  • Know he made me who and how I am, because that’s how he wants me to be.
  • Receive the love, acceptance, and forgiveness he offers me through his son Jesus Christ.
  • Simply live in a trusting-child-to-loving-father relationship, knowing that he loves me not because I am good, but because he is good.
  • Let the light of his smiling face shine into all the dark approval-seeking corners of my thoughts, attitudes, and behaviors.
  • Live out of who I am in Christ, and not out of who I’m trying to be for others.

Prayer:

Father, Please help me to get this truth a little clearer in my mind and embrace it a little deeper in my heart today. I want to live for your approval, not for my own, not for the approval of others. Help me not to waste time and energy trying to be someone or something I’m not just to gain the approval of others. Help me not to waste the joy of my relationship with you because I’m striving for something I already have—your love and acceptance. May my friends and I be more secure in your love, more joyful in your acceptance, and more free to simply be who you created us to be. Amen.