WHAT OTHERS MIGHT THINK

John 12:43 For they loved human praise more than the praise of God.

The other day I had climbed the step ladders and as I was balancing on top of the washing machine, multiple thoughts were going through my head at the same time. I was trying to reach the electrical fuse box, wondering why the builders put it at ceiling height! I was asking the Lord to hold me steady, mainly because I obviously didn’t want to fall off, but also I didn’t want anyone to say I shouldn’t have been up there in the first place, if I did!😊

Have you ever thought like that? You don’t want to lose face! Actually, the bottom line of that is pride and we don’t always want to admit it. We don’t like to look silly, or have people think less of us do we? Sometimes shyness is based in pride too for the same reasons. We don’t want to put ourselves forward in case we do something wrong and have everyone looking at us! We worry about what others might think of us because we’re focused on ourselves! 

The Jewish leaders in our verse were like that too. They didn’t want to confess they believed in Jesus in case they were put out of their synagogue, their circle, if they did. They were more worried about what others thought of them than what God thought of them.

Jesus was so beyond that kind of thinking though. Philippians 2:7 (Nkjv & Nlt) He gave up His divine privileges, gave up His reputation, He took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. Jesus was way beyond caring what people thought about Him, all He cared about was doing His Father’s will, no matter what He looked like, how low a position He had to take, or what He had to do. In other words He wasn’t focused on Himself but only on His God and what He wanted. I felt very challenged by that! 

Lord help us not to be so focused on ourselves, but to go beyond worrying what people think about us. Help us to want to please You more than anything else and do what You want us to do, regardless of what others might think. Amen.