Please God, and Others, Not Self.

We think pleasing ourselves is our ultimate goal in our lives. We believe that being pleased- content, happy, satisfied, glad- is something we are to strive for. Truly we are NOT to please ourselves, this ISN'T our life's objective! To say I'm happy, to say I'm content, to say I'm satisfied, this is NOT what I should be desiring- not above others. MY pleasure should be secondary to helping others yet I am so incredibly SELFISH that I somehow believe that I should be first! That I shouldn't have to be unhappy, dissatisfied, not content, and surely not glad.  I'm not saying I need to be depressed, sad, angry, there is a place between our being pleased and our being unpleased. It is in this place between we are to LIVE for Christ and be HIS people here and now that MINISTER to each other revealing His love in everything we do for others. This is where we NEED to be! This is where we are to teach our children to be, not to seek their own pleasure, their own pleasing. 

We are to PLEASE others at the expense of NOT pleasing ourselves! We are to BEAR the infirmities of the weak if we are strong.

Christ did NOT please himself. Christ did NOT seek to please himself at all.  Pleasure may have come through bringing His light and life to others, but He did not purposefully commit a single action to please Himself.

Rom 15:1  We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves. 

Rom 15:2  Let every one of us please his neighbour for his good to edification. 

Rom 15:3  For even Christ pleased not himself; but, as it is written, The reproaches of them that reproached thee fell on me. 

Psa 89:50  Remember, Lord, the reproach of thy servants; how I do bear in my bosom the reproach of all the mighty people; 

Psa 89:51  Wherewith thine enemies have reproached, O LORD; wherewith they have reproached the footsteps of thine anointed. 

Christ suffered.

Mat 26:39  And he went a little further, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt.

Mat 26:42  He went away again the second time, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if this cup may not pass away from me, except I drink it, thy will be done. 

Joh 4:34  Jesus saith unto them, My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work.

Joh 5:30  I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me.

Joh 6:38  For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me. 

Joh 8:29  And he that sent me is with me: the Father hath not left me alone; for I do always those things that please him. 

Joh 12:27  Now is my soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour: but for this cause came I unto this hour. 

Joh 12:28  Father, glorify thy name. Then came there a voice from heaven, saying, I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again. 

Php 2:6  Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: 

Php 2:7  But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: 

Php 2:8  And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. 

Christ did NOT live to please Himself, but to please God, His Father, are we to do ANY LESS?

STOP TRYING TO PLEASE YOURSELF (yes, I'm talking to myself too).

Please, Lord, PLEASE help us to seek to please YOU, and others, over and above ourselves.  All through Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior now and forever, amen!