1 Thessalonians 2:1-9

1 Thessalonians 2: 1-9
1 You yourselves know, dear brothers and sisters, that our visit to you was not a failure. 2 You know how badly we had been treated at Philippi just before we came to you and how much we suffered there. Yet our God gave us the courage to declare his Good News to you boldly, even though we were surrounded by many who opposed us. 3 So you can see that we were not preaching with any deceit or impure purposes or trickery.
4 For we speak as messengers who have been approved by God to be entrusted with the Good News. Our purpose is to please God, not people. He is the one who examines the motives of our hearts. 5 Never once did we try to win you with flattery, as you very well know. And God is our witness that we were not just pretending to be your friends so you would give us money! 6 As for praise, we have never asked for it from you or anyone else. 7 As apostles of Christ we certainly had a right to make some demands of you, but we were as gentle among you as a mother feeding and caring for her own children. 8 We loved you so much that we gave you not only God’s Good News but our own lives, too. 9 Don’t you remember, dear brothers and sisters, how hard we worked among you? Night and day we toiled to earn a living so that our expenses would not be a burden to anyone there as we preached God’s Good News among you
DEVOTION (Chris Bunch)
Almost everyone I know is often tempted to please people before they please God. It may be your spouse, your parents, your kids, your friends, your co-workers or your boss. We each can easily slip into being a people pleaser above anything else. Why is that? Why are we so concerned about what other people think? Well, I believe that it is because we want people to like us, we want them to see us in a good light, we want them to be impressed. This week I was talking with a college student about a relationship that she was going to break off. She knew it was a difficult decision and she was very worried how the guy would respond and even more so———what his parents would think of her. Although she knew it was the right thing to do and that she had felt prompted in her prayer time to break it off, the decision to do so was very difficult because she wanted people to still like her.
Paul says in this passage: “Our purpose is to please God, not people. He is the one who examines the motives of our hearts.” (vs.4) Are you in a relationship that you know you should get out of but you are worried about hurting feelings? Are you in a job that is causing you to do something unethical and you know it is wrong? Are you buying all kinds of stuff to get people to like you but you are getting further and further in debt? Doing the right thing and pleasing God above people is not easy——but it is the only way to a joy-filled and abundant life. So, the question becomes today: Who are you going to please———God or people?

PRAYER:
God, you know I am often temped to please people before I please you. Help me to put you first and do that in every decision I make today and throughout this week. I want to please you before I please people. In Jesus name. Amen