Don't work hard to prove people wrong

Don't work hard to prove people wrong. 

 

Living to try and prove that people are wrong about you is just another way the heart forms and fashions an idol. You end up being enslaved to a person, to their opinion of you and to your expectations of them. And in the end, all idols fail to give us what they promised us.

 

 

WHOEVER

When trying to prove ourselves not to be the person some think or say that we are, we find it increasingly difficult to be ourselves – to laugh naturally, to have a normal conversation, to be pleasant to be around. We become consumed in our mind by whoever we believe is an object to our detriment or our benefit. 

 

We're crushed under the weight of working to earn what we believe we'll be miserable without – respect, popularity, love, acceptance, vengeance, etc. We're bent and bending to a breaking point out of fear, anger or self-love to save ourselves – to be saved.

 

But who can save themselves? And who can save us from ourselves?

 

WHENEVER

God is not as concerned as we are with people's opinions of us. He doesn't want you comparing yourself to others; He's not comparing you to them. He's not comparing them to you either. God is, however, concerned with His opinion of you, your opinion of Him and your opinion of others.

 

"Not that we dare to classify or compare ourselves with some of those who are commending themselves. But when they measure themselves by one another and compare themselves with one another, they are without understanding. (2 Corinthians 10:12)

 

Paul's constant striving and working was not out of competition or in comparison with others. In fact, Paul would say that whenever we live and thrive off of comparing ourselves to others and commending ourselves to others, we truly don't understand the way God sees or measures things.

 

WHATEVER

Everything Paul did was born and motivated out of love for Jesus and others. He wasn't trying to earn love in anyway from anyone. Paul knew he was already loved as much as any man or woman could possibly be loved. And he was loved having done nothing to deserve it

 

How is it possible to compare or commend ourselves when we have been freely loved, forgiven and accepted by Jesus Christ? Whatever judgment we receive from man cannot possibly compare to the judgment we deserve from God. Whatever love we receive from man cannot possibly come close to the love we don't deserve from God. Because of Jesus, God's wrath has passed over us and His love has come home to us. 

Be careful, then, not to put yourself below or above where Jesus puts you. 

 

Don't work work hard to prove people wrong; don't work hard to prove you're right. Neither is the kind of effort Jesus wants to give you grace for. Rather, forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus (Philippians 3:12-14).

"For it is not the one who commends himself who is approved, but the one whom the Lord commends." (2 Cor. 10:18)