Today's study covers 4-6 from the list 9 Things That Can Steal Your Peace. You can read about 1-3 HERE.
Three more things that will steal your peace, if you let them:
4. Pride, position, desire for admiration.
Don't get caught up in the empty rating system of our fallen world.
1 John 2:15-17: Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. 16 For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world. 17 The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever.
The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life would include sexual lusts, greed, and entitlement. But for this point, I want to focus on the "pride of life." The New Living Translation calls this "pride in our achievements and possessions." When we value ourselves or others according to the world's system, we lose our peace with God and we lose our objectivity. That's why some athletes, musicians, entertainment stars, and wealthy people are deeply honored despite their selfish, ungodly lifestyles.
To put some of these worldly values in perspective, I encourage you to read these 1-minute devotions: Stupid Has No Age Limit and You Can't Argue with Success, or Can You?
5. Fear of offending people.
Be gracious and kind to people, but fear God, not man.
Proverbs 29:25: Fear of man will prove to be a snare, but whoever trusts in the LORD is kept safe.
We should do our best to be gracious and kind, treating people the same way we would like them to treat us (Matthew 7:12). But we should not be concerned if people reject us for our looks, education, ethnicity, nationality, income or any other external factor. And we should never be concerned that they will reject us for our faith or our Biblical values. When we try to please others instead of trying to please God, we quickly lose our peace.
This 1-minute devotion gives some signs of people-pleasing that we should avoid: 4 Signs We’re People-Pleasers.
And this 1-minute devotion explains when we should try to please people and when we should not: When To Care.
Jesus didn't demand respect, appreciation, and comfort. Neither should we.
Philippians 2:3-8: Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, 4 not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. 5 In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: 6 Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; 7 rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death— even death on a cross!
I once heard Christ's coming compared to a man becoming a dog in order to save other dogs. I realize this analogy breaks down rather quickly, but it's important that we realize how great a sacrifice Christ made for us, how much he lowered Himself, how much honor He forfeited. Imagine the Son of God being spit upon, called a demon, and hung on a cross. Nothing you or I give up in this life can compare. Neither God nor anyone else owes us wealth or comfort. And even though there are areas where we should be shown respect, we must accept that we will not always receive it, just as our Savior did not receive the honor due Him. When we demand any of these things, we lose our peace.
This 1-minute devotion approaches this subject from a different angle than usual: Don’t Give Me What I Deserve.
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