Who Do You Serve?

Have you ever heard the saying, “you can’t ride two horses with one butt”? (my grandpa from Oklahoma says it all the time.) It’s meaning is simple: You cannot serve two masters. Which begs the question, who is your master? Who is it that you desire to please above anyone else; God, or man?

            Galatians 1:10 states “For am I now seeking the favor of men, or of God? Or am I striving to please men? If I were still pleasing men, I should not be a servant of Christ.” (ASV)

            When God is truly our master, we desire to please him more than anyone. When we choose to please people more than we please God, we become enslaved to them. Their opinion becomes the only one that matters. Which is unfortunate, because we all know how judgmental and harsh people can be.

            It is completely impossible to please everyone. I spent a majority of my life (up until I was 22) striving to please people.  It became so important to me that I allowed myself to be pushed around and never spoke up because I didn’t want to upset anyone. I am sorry to say that please people had, at that point, become more important to me than pleasing God. Luckily God delivered me of that, and now I stand boldly in Christ, aiming to please him before anyone else.

            The ways of men are as crooked as a politician and, needless to say, are not the ways of the Lord.  That means we have a choice—will we strive to please mankind or Christ? It should be a simple answer; after all, last time I checked no human being ever accomplished anything close to creating an entire universe in a week. 

-Lacey Slifkoff