Lust for People's Approval

People pleasing is sin and not wanting to be rejected all the time is an idol. If I spend all my time trying to make people happy, I am serving People and not God. A bible study with a friend has shown me that I harvest a lot of idols and until now I haven't realized it. My idol - people. I jump from one person to another or Family in my case. When I am rejected by one, I try another and try to find fulfillment in them, which I can't; as with any idol they become worthless to me and I end up hating them because they couldn't make me happy or because they didn't love me enough. A lot of the time it is their fault because they really did do something pretty awful to hurt me, but if I didn't value people in my life so much then I wouldn't get so upset when they made a mistake or hurt me. I'm not saying I shouldn't value people, I am saying I shouldn't value them above God. I didn't think I valued anything above God, in my head, I thought I was okay, but in searching my heart more deeply, I found that my head and heart don't line up and in my heart I love things more than I should. My head knows all the right stuff; it's a matter of getting my heart to change. I can't change my heart; only God can so I have my list of things that I am begging God to change in me because I am very unhappy with some things in my life. I hate sin in my heart so much and I know God has the power to change my heart, so I beg Him to on a daily basis. I am grateful to Him that He has shared this truth with me and that He will give me the victory.

My friend put it this way - Lust for People's Approval

Some verses that teach me that People Pleasing/Approval is a sin...

Psalm 62:1,2,8,9 ~ Trust in God, not people. He is my rock and salvation, not people. He is my defense, not people. If I trust in God, I will not be moved; I will not become a basket case. Trust God AT ALL TIMES! I am to pour my heart out to Him above all. I am to go to Him for refuge and strength before people because He is good enough and He satisfies. I have great people in my life and I am sooo very thankful for them, but they CANNOT come before God! They cannot comfort the way He can. No person can take His place. People do not last and even those who consider themselves important and think their opinion matters are called a lie because they are foolish. The only opinion that truly matters and that will stand the test of time is the Almighty God's so He should be listened to above all! In other words, a lot of people have opinions and most of them stink. ;)

1 Truly my soul silently waits for God;
From Him comes my salvation.
2 He only is my rock and my salvation;
He is my defense;
I shall not be greatly moved.

8 Trust in Him at all times, you people;
Pour out your heart before Him;
God is a refuge for us. Selah

9 Surely men of low degree are a vapor,
Men of high degree are a lie;
If they are weighed on the scales,
They are altogether lighter than vapor.

Psalm 115:4-8 ~ The entire Psalm is amazing and filled with encouragement and challenges! God does what he wants! Idols are just so worthless to me! They are the work of my own hands. And I know how good my hands are at making things. I make a lot of mistakes, but not God. How can I think that what I come up with will win against what God has already ordained to be?! If I trust in my idol of People pleasing or gaining everyone's approval, I will get no where. If I trust in the Lord, I will get help and a shield!

But our God is in heaven;
He does whatever He pleases.
4 Their idols are silver and gold,
The work of men’s hands.
5 They have mouths, but they do not speak;
Eyes they have, but they do not see;
6 They have ears, but they do not hear;
Noses they have, but they do not smell;
7 They have hands, but they do not handle;
Feet they have, but they do not walk;
Nor do they mutter through their throat.
8 Those who make them are like them;
So is everyone who trusts in them.

9 O Israel, trust in the Lord;
He is their help and their shield.

Jeremiah 17:5-10 ~ Here is the greatest passage, I think, to blow this people pleasing out of the water! CURSED am I if I trust in people to give me what only God can give! I will be miserable! Am I willing to make flesh my strength?! I have seen how far mere flesh goes; it's soooo weak! Check out the description! That is exactly what I will be if I trust in man and what they can give me rather than wholly trusting in God to fulfill the emptiness I seek in wanting to be loved and wanted. But I will be blessed if I trust God and when stress comes I won't wilt away and fall apart, but I will stand firm knowing I have a God who can be trusted at all times and who never fails, rather than seeking out my friends and being discouraged even more when none of them can come to my aid. This is life, people can't fill you! They can't make you fully happy. Popularity can't fill you either and being everyone's best friend won't make your life issues go away. Only God can fill the void. Only God! Friends are a blessing, but not who I am to lean on entirely. They may drop me because I am too overwhelming; men were not meant to carry me, God is!

5 Thus says the Lord:

“Cursed is the man who trusts in man
And makes flesh his strength,
Whose heart departs from the Lord.
6 For he shall be like a shrub in the desert,
And shall not see when good comes,
But shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness,
In a salt land which is not inhabited.

7 “Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord,
And whose hope is the Lord.
8 For he shall be like a tree planted by the waters,
Which spreads out its roots by the river,
And will not fear when heat comes;
But its leaf will be green,
And will not be anxious in the year of drought,
Nor will cease from yielding fruit.

9 “The heart is deceitful above all things,
And desperately wicked;
Who can know it?
10 I, the Lord, search the heart,
I test the mind,
Even to give every man according to his ways,
According to the fruit of his doings.

And here lies the heart problem. All of the above in is my head and I know it so well and have been told it over and over and most of this I have memorized, but, Lord, it's gotta penetrate deeply into my heart and change me from the inside out! Lord, You must do this work! I trust that You will and give me the victory I so long for!