Word of the Day (4-4-12) by Lakisha Goldsberry

Today’s Date

Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Today’s Word Comes

Colossians 3:23 (NLT) by Lakisha Goldsberry

23 Work willingly at whatever you do, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people. 24 Remember that the Lord will give you an inheritance as your reward, and the Master you are serving is Christ.

In life, we sometimes find ourselves doing so many different things to serve multiple purposes. Some people are consumed with the tremendous responsibility of work, family and their social life in an effort to appease others or certain circumstances. Most of the time, we do what we have to do accommodate our lifestyles and make it manageable enough to either please ourselves and you guessed it, somebody else. We focus our attempts of happiness in what other people want, show desperate concern for what others may think and ultimately carry the weight of worry around because of what people may say. Why do we possess the desire to be validated by man when it’s not what they say, think or want that matters at all? We’re so busy trying to gain validity from people that we miss the focal point of why we do what we do in the first place. Our consistent aim should be in pleasing the Lord always. As Christians, it should be our daily mission to first honor the Lord by doing whatever we do with our lives.

Often times, we are looking for affirmation for our achievements, honorable mention for our gifts and talents, special recognition for our acts of kindness and just an occasional pat on the back for what we’ve done. These types of accolades fuel us daily and allow our engines to function properly based on the criteria of mankind. Unfortunately, it is inevitable that we will miss the mark with man and they will never fail to notify you of that fact. When you don’t follow through with a task, sing the right note, pray the correct way, preach differently then the next person, didn’t volunteer for this, didn’t pay for this, couldn’t give for this, and couldn’t be there for that, someone is going to complain about it. The ending result is that we find ourselves trying to meet the standards of the world and not seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness so that all these things can be added to us (Matt. 6:33 paraphrased).  Our goal should never be to please others and doing things for the approval of others for self-worth, self-fulfillment or reward. Our promotion comes from the Lord and whoever we are in life is affirmed by who we are in Him. We’re fighting a losing battle if people are always our centralized audience and we’re waiting on their critique cause at some point, what’s been good enough will quickly turn into NOT ENOUGH! We should always uphold God’s Word that only what we do for Him will last. What’s done unto man is considered temporal pleasures and will fade eventually. Let us be about seeking the Lord in whatever we do because His opinion and only His is what will ever matter. You can’t please some people some of the time, let’s try pleasing God all of the time.

Have a wonderful, blessed, productive, stress free day!