It All Depends On Whom You're Trying To Please

"He who glories, let him glory in the Lord. For not he who commends himself is approved, but whom the Lord commends." 2nd Corinthians 10:17-18 What feels better than the praise of men? If someone receives praise from men, especially if it's from someone he respects, then he struts his chest out and it just feels oh so good! When a man has written a book or obtained a degree after his name, when he is now called "doctor" so-and-so, he feels like he's reached the pinnacle of success and is quite impressed with himself. The question is, what is God's opinion of the man? Actually, the higher the man climbs or the more books that he writes, can sometimes be inversely proportional to the opinion of Him, our creator, with whom we have to do. There is no sin worse in the eyes of God than pride. Pride toppled the highest and most beautiful and greatest of all the angels in heaven. “How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How you are cut down to the ground, you who weakened the nations! For you have said in your heart: ‘I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will also sit on the mount of the congregation on the farthest sides of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High.’ Yet you shall be brought down to Sheol, to the lowest depths of the Pit." Isaiah 14:12-15 The most beautiful of all the angels, the greatest of them ...will spend eternity in the torment and SHAME of the lake of fire. Shame will be the eternal punishment of the proud. If that can happen to a supernatural and brilliant angel, it certainly can happen to a man. And it is now that angel's fervent agenda to make sure that it does happen to you, because he is bent on preventing you from taking his place in heaven. Satan will allow a man to gain the praise of men, in order to bring him down to hell. “The man whom God delights to bless,

he never curses with success.”

-Charles Wesley More than anything else, Satan's diabolical aim is to destroy through pride those who would otherwise have taken his place in heaven. That's why it is so utterly important to seek the Lord's will for one's life, not a parent's, not a teacher's, not a friend's, but the Lord's; and then walk in it - regardless of how humble the calling may seem to be. He who starts small and is faithful, the Lord will enlarge, and he'll do it in such a way that the man is aware that it is GOD who is providing and approving. Such a man will feel the joy and satisfaction that is not proud, but thankful. If people don't seem to respond to or appreciate what he does, the man still retains his joy as long as he knows he's doing exactly what God has laid out for him to do. Satan says, "I did it my way." The saved rather, say "God, your will not mine be done." "He who glories, let him glory in the Lord. For not he who commends himself is approved, but whom the Lord commends." An excellent clip on this - the testimony of a little white-haired man on George Street, who did it God's way and never had feedback till the very end of his life: Frank Jenner's Story: