Do you wake up each day seeking how you will please every
person that you meet? Wow, what a wonderful world it will be if all persons
around the world could actually do that. However, does the idea sound
plausible? Is it possible to please every person and is it beneficial to do so?
The Bible tells us: “Everything is
permissible, but not everything is helpful. Everything is permissible but not
everything builds up” (1Corinthians, 10:23). We are permitted to please everybody
but the huge question is, will it be beneficial or helpful to the person(s)?
Someone that had such dilemma was king Jehoshaphat, of the lineage of king
David. Heaven testified about him that he loved and feared God, this he showed
by serving his people well. However, king Jehoshaphat also loved all people and
sought to do good to all. I am sure his thoughts would be as most think now, to
show love to all and sundry. This in itself is a wonderful idea but let us see
how Jehoshaphat walked on this trail. The Bible tells us that king Jehoshaphat
had a peace pact with king Ahab (a man the Bible says was the most evil of all
the kings that ever ruled Israel – 1Kings 21:25). When Ahab wanted to go to
war, Jehoshaphat joined him in the war and he escaped with his life by the
mercies of God from the war. Jehoshaphat sealed the deal by allowing his son to
marry Athaliah the daughter of king Ahab. This ungodly marriage led to the
death of Jehoshaphat’s entire household, save one by divine intervention by the
hands of his son Jehoram and Athaliah the daughter of Ahab. As if this was not
enough, after Ahab’s death, he formed an alliance with Ahab’s son Joram to do
business together. God wrecked the business before it even started (2
Chronicles, 20:35-37). With all these glaring evidences that something was
grossly wrong with his choice of associations, one would have expected
Jehoshaphat, a man that knows God, to return back to Him and ask some soul
searching questions.
Friend, you cannot seek to be a people pleaser and still
please God: “Adultresses! Do you not know
that friendship with the world is hostility toward God?” (James 4:4). You
may argue that as children of God, we must love the world. This idea is good
but not godly because the Bible clearly states that God loved the world but we
are commanded not to love the world: “Do
not love the world or the things that belong to the world. If anyone loves the
world, love for the Father is not in him” (1John 2:15). This terrible
journey started in the life of king Jehoshaphat when he left his kingdom to go
visit a terrible and evil king. Friend, when one leaves the territory God has
placed him a fall is imminent. The Bible says when asked to join a fight he had
no business in, Jehoshaphat replied: “I
am as you are, my people as your people, we will be with you in battle”
(2Chronicles 18:3). What alliances have you formed that Heaven is not pleased
with? There are so many Jehoshaphats in homes, offices, businesses. Chosen of
God but out of sentiments making bad decisions with no discernment, God-fearing
but easily compromises, blessed by God but no wisdom, noble in works but
rebellious at heart, so many contradictions! The root of all this is because
such desire to please people. Paul understood this when he declared: “Am I now trying to win the approval of
human beings, or of God? Or am I trying to please people. I would not be a
servant of Christ” Galatians 1:10. Friend, we must run from these
contradictions as they corrode our foundations. Remember if the foundations
become faulty, what would the righteous do? It is time to flee from all appearances
of evil no matter the godly clothes that are worn on them, so that our lives
and souls will be saved. God bless you.
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