Topic: Focus on Living for an Audience of One [RICK WARREN Devotional 17 January 2024]
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Focus on Living for an Audience of One
BY RICK WARREN — JANUARY 17, 2024
FROM RETHINKING YOUR LIFE
“No one can serve two masters.”
Luke 16:13 (NIV)
When you’re always worried about what other people think of you, you can’t be what God wants you to be. But when you learn to think like Jesus, you won’t worry about pleasing everyone. Jesus had the right focus. He was only concerned with pleasing God.
Jesus was never manipulated by crowds or by the approval or disapproval of anybody else. He lived for an audience of one: “I try to please the One who sent me” (John 5:30 NCV). When you have the mind of Christ, that’s what you do too.
Wouldn’t it simplify your life to live for an audience of one? If God likes what you’re doing, then you know you’re doing the right thing.
God says in Matthew 3:17, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased” (NIV). Jesus was obviously doing it right.
The truth is, you can’t please everybody. Even God can’t please everybody! When someone prays for it to be sunny, somebody else is praying for it to rain. Somebody is praying for their team to do well, and someone else wants the opposing team to win. You can’t please everybody.
Luke 16:13 says, “No one can serve two masters” (NIV).
You have to decide whose approval you’re going to seek—God’s approval or other people’s approval. Are you going to live for what other people think or what God thinks?
When you’re always looking for validation from other people, it means you don’t really realize who you are. You don’t understand what God made you to do, and you don’t believe that he is always with you.
Jesus never let someone else’s approval or a fear of rejection control him. He wasn’t out to win a popularity contest. He didn’t need other people’s opinions to validate himself.
When you have the mind of Christ, you will be so secure in your identity, your purpose, and God’s presence in your life that you won’t need to look to other people for approval.
Talk It Over
- Why can’t you fully realize your identity and purpose when you are worried about what other people think of you?
- What are your top goals? In each of those goals, whose approval is motivating you?
- How can knowing God’s Word help you have the mind of Christ and be more concerned with his approval than other people’s approval?
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