We Forfeit God’s Promotion When We Strive for Promotion From Man

The innate nature inside of all of us is to seek after and attain approval by man, to reach the bar of success that has been set by the world that is ultimately impossible to achieve.

The desire to find approval in our work ability, hobbies, appearance, personality, intellect and so much more can leave one feeling inadequate based on a standard man has set. In the pop culture of the day, you may feel pressure to be, act or perform certain ways.

I remember being a child, sitting in my room, wearing my dorky clothes, staring at a ceiling planning my life out year by year. I had all these ideations of what my future would hold and how the world would perceive me. More times than not, when our plans fail and men don’t always approve of our actions, we are left feeling downtrodden.

When we strive to be promoted by man, we forfeit promotion by God. You may have a hard time with how your boss or a family member is treating you. When someone treats you like a servant, how do you react? This often exposes the offenses in our heart—if we are offended by being treated like a servant, we are failing the test of servanthood.

Here are some practical tips you can implement in your life to break off the approval of man:

— Love Jesus well.

— Obey His Word; give so that your right hand doesn’t know what your left hand is doing.

— Worship the Lord when you don’t feel like it. That is when God takes your life and resurrects it!

— When you get up from the crucifixion, you won’t even care anymore what others think, because you will be solely focused on the words from your heavenly Father.

You may feel hidden or overlooked by letting God do things the right way—but as you continue to be faithful, the Lord will bring the increase.