God Determines if You Pass or Fail...

So, last night I was reading in Galatians, and a singular verse stuck out to me: "For am I now seeking the favor of men, or of God?  Or am I trying to please men?  If I were trying to please men, I would not have been a bond-servant of Christ." - Galatians 1:10 

Do you let the world influence your decisions?  Do you let God influence your decisions?  To whom do listen the majority of the time?  I'm going to be honest with you - I usually listened to the things that the world had to say, and I blocked out the things God had to say, just pushing His Word to the side.  I had several excuses for not doing what God had told me.  I think that two of the biggest, and worse excuses I came up with were (1) If I did that, everyone would think I am weird, and (2) I don't feel comfortable doing that - and God wouldn't make me do something that would make me uncomfortable, would He?

Let's address both of these. 

(1) If I did that, everyone would think I am weird!

     This was the point I was originally going to make.  If you are in a class, and the teacher pretty much tells the class, "If you do exactly as I say, you will pass this class with flying colors.  However, if you don't do what I tell you to, you are going to fail the class for sure."  Your friends don't listen to him.  They opt to mess around all day, and completely ignore your teacher.  Would you go along with your friends for a little while, but fail the class, or would you listen to the teacher and do as he said, and pass with flying colors?  Hopefully, you would choose to obey your teacher, who determines your grade, rather than your friends, who are going to fail the class. 

     God is the same way.  If you are taking His class (Life), there are two choices:  Pass or Fail.  You can't glide by with a C in God's class.  You have to listen to God and do as He tells you.  Don't listen to the world - does the world send you to Heaven/Hell?   No, God does.  God determines if you pass or fail this class.  So shouldn't you be more concerned with what God thinks rather than what the world thinks?  I mean, the people of the world are going to pass away.  God won't.  Your life on Earth is short.  The people in your life on Earth, especially in your high school years, aren't even going to stay in your life much after graduation, much less your life in Heaven.  Why should you worry about pleasing these people?  You will deal with them for four years of your life, but you will have to answer for those four years when you stand before God.  When He is looking at your life, is it going to matter what party you went to?  Is it going to matter what crowd you were in in school?  No.  God is going to look at your life, and see if you acknowledged Him, which means living as He told you to live.   "Whoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven.  But whoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven." - Matthew 10:32-33.  

(2)  I don't feel comfortable doing that - and God wouldn't make me do something that would make me uncomfortable, would He?

     God doesn't care about what makes you comfortable.   He wants you to grow in Him, and that requires you to step out of your comfort zone and do what you are told to do.  God cares about your happiness, but he cares much more about your spiritual health.  He wants you to grow much more than He wants you to be comfortable.  When you grow physically, you experience growing pains.  You don't like them at all, but they are happening because your body is not yet comfortable with it's new "stuff".  In the same way must you experience discomfort in order to mature in Christ.  So, God will ask you, all the time (I am speaking from experience here) to do things that you don't want to do, or that require you to step out of your comfort zone.  I am still working on this in myself - I have a hard time trusting that God knows what He is doing, and that I am playing a part in His ultimate plan.  

As always, I hope that this post finds you at peace with yourself, and with God.  I hope that you hear what He is trying to say to you, and you obey Him, instead of the world.

God bless you,

Tyler Henke