This chapter is dealing with the desire to please others. I am guilty of this. I always feel like I need to please others. I struggle with it daily. I don’t want to let anyone down.
But Groeschel tells us in this chapter that “When we place the approval of other people ahead of doing what we know will please our Father we’re creating a false idol.”
Many of us, I’m sure, want to fit in wherever they go. It’s only natural. “It’s human nature to want to find our tribe and be recognized by them.”
The problem arises, however, when we’re willing to compromise in two vital areas:
our relationship with God our relationship with ourselves
You see, God wants to be first in our lives! He is a jealous God! Not putting God first “impairs our ability to know God and sends us on a wild goose chase for a golden egg that doesn’t exist.”
If the approval of others is all we live for, it will never be enough!
According to author Harriet Braiker, “people pleasing is a form of addiction.” She identifies 4 characteristic symptoms of Pleasers.
Ouch. All of those sound familiar to me.
Ironically, we often fail to see that whenever we compromise ourselves to please others, we tend to lose their respect
When people figure out that you always want to please them they will take advantage of that. They will “exploit this as a weakness.”
However, “when it’s clear that we have a commitment to God that comes before anything else in our lives, most people will respect us even if they don’t share our faith.”
People pleasing is more of a spiritual problem than a relational problem.
Most people tend to view people pleasing as a normal part of life. As Christians, we have to embrace people pleasing as a “form of idolatry.”
We have to be weird enough not to care what people think of who we are and how we live.”
Living for other’s opinion is putting people ahead of God
People pleasing has “haunted people throughout history.” The Pharisees “regularly lived for public opinion than to please God.” And because of this many followers of Jesus fell into the trap of people pleasing.
John 12:42-43 says ” Because of the Pharisees, they would not confess their faith for fear they would be put out of the synagogue; for they loved praise from men more than praise from God.
Know FearGroeschel asks us some questions:
According to Groeschel there is only one antidote, one solution to this problem:
The fear of God is the only cure for the fear of people
Psalm 343:9 says “Let the Lord’s people show him reverence, for those who honor him will have all they need. (NLT)
Fearing God doesn’t mean being afraid of him as some might think. To fear God is to show him reverence, to be in awe of Him. 
When you truly know the God of the universe, people’s opinions will no longer hold you hostage.
KNOW God
We need to remember that we can’t please everyone. But we CAN please God.
Why work so hard to be normal when God created you to stand out?
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