Right Priorities, Real Satisfaction

Whose opinion do you care about?

There are only two answers to this question: the world, or God. 

People always act differently depending on who they're around. When you're talking to your friends, I'll bet you use different words and mannerisms than you would if you were interviewing for a prospective internship or job—or if you were with your parents at a family reunion. 

School, work, home, church. These are all different spheres of your life. 

Why do you act differently in each of them if you're still the same person inside? 

It's because you care about the opinions of others. You want them to like you—everyone does, it's natural—so you're going to behave in a way that you think presents yourself well. A way that they like. 

We like people liking us. That makes sense—you want to be loved, not hated. 

But acting like this can lead us to sin. 

If you only behave when you're around your teachers, since your classmates at school think it's funny to mess around with the rules, then you're not respecting the authority figures God has placed in your life.

Similarly, if you only talk about Jesus in church, then you aren't being a light for the Gospel as much as you should be. 

The first step to solving this problem of sin is deciding whose opinion you really care about most. Is it the world? 

Or is it God? 

 

Serving the World

You become what you behold. 

You are what you eat—what you consume—or, alternately, you are what you love. Either way, if you love something you'll become more like that something the more you love it. 

Why is this the case? 

If we love something, we admire it. We want to become like it, because there's a reason we love it—something that makes it lovely to us. And since we all want to be lovely, well... you become what you behold. 

What does this mean for us? Well, if we love the world,, then we're going to act like the world. 

Acting like the world comes in many flavors. Fame, money, social adulation, or pleasure; all these things are worldly, and we're told that they're the highest good. If you can just make it to a lucrative retirement, if you can just get another hundred subscribers to your YouTube channel, if you can land a job or a date or a nice juicy Wendy's burger—it's all going to end up fine. 

These things are, of course, empty.

Falling for a marketing ploy isn't going to bring you lasting happiness. Money doesn't last; you get it, and the next day your luck's gone and your bank account's empty. Social celebration can turn against you—one day's hero is another day's villain. Even relationships don't satisfy you, because they can only be with people as empty and broken as you are. 

Isaiah 55:2 - "Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy?"

If you care about the world's opinion, then you will act the way the world tells you to act. 

And you're going to come up hungry.

Because all these things? They're not bread. 

(Yes, some of them literally are bread, but this is a metaphor. Go with it.)

The affirmations that you get from the world don't last. They're not going to fill you up, to satisfy you. 

Why do you waste your life on them? 

 

Serving God

You become what you behold. 

What if, instead of serving an empty world, you serve a living and perfect God? 

God's opinion matters far more than the opinions of people. If you give priority to what he thinks, then you're going to become more like him—more perfect, and more alive.

Acting like God wants you to is going to bring you real happiness, because you aren't going to be wasting your life chasing after shadows.

If you live for God, you'll use your life for things that matter. You'll be spending your money for something that is bread, that does satisfy you—and you'll reap rich rewards.

Matthew 16:25 says, "For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it." 

That's a bold promise! 

Whoever wants to save his life, to live for himself, is going to fail. But whoever gives up his life and lives for something higher than himself—that's the man who's really going to live. 

Care about God's opinion. Because God loves you, and his opinion matters far more than the world's does.