Be All GOD Wants

There have been people at church who want me to BE more “visible”, wear dresses, sing in the choir, play the piano, cook funeral food, go to visitation and business meetings, sit on the front row, and who-knows-what-all.  I’m pretty sure this is simply a sample of the things church members want me to BE.

Sadly, much of my life has been spent being who I thought others wanted me to be.  Who my parents and my friends and employers wanted me to be.  When I married and had children, I wanted to be who I thought Ernie and the kids wanted me to be.  As a speaker, I desire to please the person who asked me to come and to meet the needs of each participant.  To add to all of this….there were the people at church!!!  Oh how I wanted to be who they wanted me to be!!  Talk about exhausting, draining and sinful!!!

What about you?  Do you ever struggle with being all others want you to be?  If so, you know how hard it is because what one person wants….is not the same thing another person wants…and it is draining trying to BE ALL of those things!

So, my last two posts have focused on the theme Be All God Wants.  Today, let’s focus on the God portion.

Be All GOD wants!!

What is it GOD wants us to be?  He wants us to be who He created us to be!!  You will thrive when you are you!!

It is not about fitting into a cookie cutter model….it is not about following a checklist of do’s and don’ts or some predetermined behaviors and rigid rules….it is much better and broader and fun-er than that!!!

GOD wants me to be who He created me to be!  Generally as a woman and specifically as me.

He wants me to be me!!

Only because of the Word of God and His gentle but firm teaching and lots of people-pleasing mistakes, I have come a long way from the people-pleaser I once was, however, I still struggle with wanting to be what others want!! 

It’s not that I didn’t/don’t want what God wants…for some odd reason I believed that if I was being what God wanted, people would be pleased too!!  Nope.  Notta.  Not true!!  (Not sure why I believed that lie!!  People were not pleased with Paul or Jesus and they were doing what God wanted!!)

Not only is this people pleasing thing exhausting and sinful….what happens is then I put pressure on others to be who I want them to be!!!  What in the world???  I am doing the very thing I don’t want to do!!!  I want you/others to be who I want you to be!!

In John 17—Jesus, towards the end of His life, made a beautiful statement!  Looking up to heaven He says He has accomplished the work GOD gave Him to do!!  Hear that again, He accomplished everything GOD gave Him to do!  He did NOT do what the disciples wanted Him to do...or the multitude or even His mother!  He did what GOD wanted Him to do!!

Forgive us Lord for wanting to be what others want us to be rather than what You want us to be!  Help us to remember that when we do what You want, others might not be OK with that...help us keep our eyes and heart and mind on You!