Saturday, July 28, 2012

Impress God First

I know, O LORD, that a man’s life is not his own; it is not for man to direct his steps. -- Jeremiah 10:23

Who did you try to impress today? Oh, come on. Surely there was somebody you wanted to admire you, to think highly of you, to want to be like you. Maybe a boss or co-worker, a spouse or friend, a neighbor or fellow church member.

And that’s not all bad. In some cases, we strive harder and higher than we might otherwise. Or we clean our house with a little more diligence. Or we give a little more of ourselves to a worthy cause.

Other times it’s not good at all. We end up trying to be someone we aren’t trying to impress people we really shouldn’t want to impress. It’s that whole social class thing. We learned it in grade school. Everyone wanted to be friends with the popular kids, to be chosen first on sports teams, to fit in with the “in” crowd.

We carry that with us throughout our lives. We must be careful so that we don’t lose focus on the only One we need to impress: God.

The other day I watched someone working really hard in the blazing July heat. He knew it was way too hot to be doing what he was doing. He’d remarked on it himself for weeks. But company was coming and he wanted to impress them with all that he had done.

I’m just as guilty. A small group is using our Sunday school room for class one night a week. We’d been talking about for months that we needed to refresh and update the classroom. Suddenly, it’s become more urgent. We want to make a good impression. I want to make a good impression.

We want other people to like us and take notice of us. I wish we tried just as hard to impress God. What would God have you do today? What do you need to clean up so that it’s up to God’s standards? What do you need to try harder at so that God will admire your efforts?

God deserves our very best but sometimes it seems as though we’re so busy trying to impress other people that we neglect the One who created us and loves us most of all. We relegate God to the backburner, determined to get to whatever it is that He’s called us to do when we finish with everything else.

Our balance is more than a little out of whack. We don’t belong to ourselves. And we certainly don’t belong to all those people we’re trying to impress. We belong to God and our goal should always be to put Him first and do whatever He has called us to do to the best of our ability.

So who do you try to impress today? I hope you answered “God.”