Daily Prayer: Whose Approval Am I Actually After?
Daily Prayer: Whose Approval Am I Actually After?
"Am I now trying to win the approval of human beings, or of God? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ."
— Galatians 1:10
I caught myself re-reading an email I'd already sent three times yesterday. Not to check for typos. Just to wonder how it landed. Whether the tone was right. Whether my boss thought I'd been too direct, or not direct enough. The email was fine. It was a completely ordinary work email. And yet there I was, rotating it in my mind like a rock tumbler.
I don't think I'm alone in this.
The Quiet Audit
There's a particular kind of mental energy that gets spent — not on doing things, but on imagining how the doing is being received. I notice it at work. I notice it in conversations with my daughter, now grown, where I'll replay something I said and wonder if I came across as overbearing or, worse, dismissive. I notice it when I post something online and then check back a little too soon.
It's not dramatic. It's just this low hum of how am I doing? directed outward, at people, instead of upward, at God.
Paul's question in Galatians 1:10 is one of those verses that feels almost too simple until you sit with it. Am I trying to win the approval of human beings, or of God? He doesn't leave much room for a third option. It's one or the other, and I think he knew that most of us spend a lot of time pretending we're not choosing.
The Approval Loop
Here's the thing about people-pleasing that I find genuinely interesting: it rarely feels like people-pleasing while it's happening. It feels like being considerate. Being professional. Being a good mom, a thoughtful wife, a team player. All of which can be true and good things. But there's a version of all of those that is secretly just... wanting to be liked. Wanting to be seen as enough.
My husband and I were talking over dinner the other night — nothing heavy, just the usual check-in kind of conversation — and I mentioned offhand that I'd softened something I said at work because I didn't want to seem difficult. He didn't make a big deal of it. But later I thought about it more than I probably should have. Was I being wise or was I just managing other people's impressions of me?
Sometimes those things overlap. A lot of times, actually. But sometimes they don't, and that's where Paul's question gets sharp.
Servant of Christ Is a Specific Job Description
I love the way Paul frames the alternative. He doesn't say if you stop pleasing people, you'll finally feel free or something motivational-poster-ish like that. He says: if you're still trying to please people, you're not a servant of Christ. Full stop.
That's not harsh, I think. It's clarifying. Because a servant has one primary audience. One person to answer to. And the work of figuring out what that Person wants — reading Scripture, praying, paying attention — is very different from the work of reading a room and adjusting accordingly.
One of those things is actually restful, even when it's hard. The other one is exhausting, even when it looks easy.
What I'm Working On (Slowly, Imperfectly)
I'm not going to say I've figured this out. I'm still the person who re-reads sent emails. But I think the practice, for me, is something like: pause before the adjustment. Ask whether I'm softening something because it's the right thing to do, or because I'm afraid of the reaction. Those are different motivations, and they lead to different places.
I also think — and this is just something I've noticed in myself — that the more time I spend actually talking to God, the less I need people to weigh in. Not because I become indifferent to people, but because the approval I'm most hungry for starts to feel like it's already been given. Which makes the rest of it matter a little less.
That's a work in progress. But it's a good one to be working on.
A Prayer for Today
God, I'm going to be honest — I spend a lot of time managing how I come across to people. More than I realize, probably. And I don't think it's all bad, but I know some of it is just me wanting to be liked, wanting to be seen as good at this life I'm living.
Help me care more about what You think than what anyone else does. Not in a way that makes me careless with people — I want to love them well. But in a way that makes me free. Where I'm not running everything through a filter of how it'll land.
You already know me. You already decided I was worth something. Let me start there today, and see what happens.
Amen.
🛍️ Shop my specially designed gifts for any celebration in my Etsy shop
Explore all my personally crafted digital files on Creative Fabrica, or find downloads on Gumroad.
#dailyprayer #christiancreative #introvertlife #faithandlife #thoughtfulliving #emptynester #workinglife #quietwork #midlifevoice #artinsciencedesigns #slowcontent
Comments
Post a Comment