What is your life focus? Our life focus as Christians should be to please God. Webster defines honor as: merited respect: social courtesies or civilities extended by a host. Glory: to rejoice proudly; a ring or spot of light or a state of great exaltation. God is truly worthy of all the honor, glory and praise. We can never please people but we can sincerely attempt to live a life pleasing to GOD.

We must commence transforming our internal thought process. We must erect a spiritual edifice that exudes God is my focus. Saying giving honor is not really giving honor. We must retreat from the classical conditioning of the world and truly embrace the principle of "let this mind be in you that is also in CHRIST JESUS." Does this mean we become flawless? No, of course not! But we can become "perfect" in Him! "Be perfect, therefore, as your Heavenly Father is perfect." Matthew 5. Perfect meaning "complete!" The flesh is weak. It is only through His power can we overcome the weaknesses of the flesh. The victory is always in HIM. We must strve to please God rather than man. This is why we need a Savior! The spiritual things of God simply can not be understood from a carnal perspective. The Pharisees were great examples. They totally missed the point! Knowing about God is not knowing God. Christ said too truly love Him is to keep His commandments. Not in a rigid legalistic way. He said He will write His laws into our hearts. There is Liberty in Jesus; but He said not to use that liberty for a cloak of maliciousness.

There is much going on in this world about us. The scriptures are being fulfilled. God willl not leave you ignorant or abandon you. You must learn to TRUST HIM! His Word is alive! God will not put more on us than we can bear. Neither does He ever tempt us. When the load seems unbearable we must make a spiritual adjustment. Jesus has said "that His yoke is easy and His burdens are light." We must learn to give Him any and all burdens. God is a spirit of truth and we must embrace the truth however painful in order to really grasp Freedom. The trials we face in life should be viewed as character building lessons. On the other side of any pain is hope. When our hope is in the Lord we can begin to release the reigns of worry that only serve to hinder us. We don’t have to manipulate anything or anybody. All we really have to do is TRUST GOD! When you have no doubts that your life is entrusted to Him, He will always make a path for His will and Way in your life. We just have to allow His Holy Spirit to guide us "in the path of righteousness" and follow His lead. God is always speaking! We just have to get better at listening! God really does have it all under control. If we “TRUST in the LORD with all your heart, and lean not to our own understanding  in All our ways acknowledge HIM, and He will make your path straight."

Sometimes we must really just learn to let go and allow God to intervene. As we continue in prayer we then stop playing tug-a war (giving Him the problem and taking it back). We must sometime learn to pull back and retreat when the spiritual warfare becomes unbearable. We must ask, pray and seek whatever His will is for us in all situations. Remember during spiritual warfare He tells us; “when you have done all you can do STAND!” God really will take care of you! It is important to remember that God really does know what we think, why we do what we do or do not do. He is Omniscient!!!  When you know your heart is aligned with Him it will bring much Peace. God’s JOY will sustain you and give you strength! God deserves the glory in our lives. It is when things seem hopeless His miraculous power always shines through. He really is able!

We must learn to become objective and ask ourselves is God pleased? Don’t just go along for the sake of being accepted. “Don’t be conformed to this world. But be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” If you know your motives are right it really doesn’t matter what it looks like to others. Continue to seek God's will for resolve. When they don’t understand; He Does. Remember His Peace surpasses the understanding of man! The spiritual adjustment has to be internal. As you allow Him to work internally it will manifest outwardly! In the midst of spiritual warfare there is quite often much distortion. We read things into things that are not so. We speak when we should be silent. We respond impulsively. We misinterpret the motives of others. To experience inner peace we must learn to “hide His WORD in our hearts that we might not sin against HIM”

We must begin to reprogram our minds to respond spiritually rather than carnally. Just remember when we speak softly or not at all people will see it as a weakness. When we speak boldly people will see it as uncaring or even arrogant. Begin to break cycles of dysfunction. When you disengage from a seemingly endless merry-go round of fight- fuss-makeup- breakup they will feel abandoned. When you don’t give them what they want you will appear selfish. When you allow them to feel the consequences of their behavior you will appear unloving. Know that God really knows why you do what you do. It is He who we must live to please. I always say : “Some things will just not be understood on this side of Heaven!” Don’t procrastinate begin now. Press forward and let it become your daily goal to please Him. You can rest assured that those who seek the truth, delight themselves in Him will receive the desires of their hearts. Heaven will be our eternal place of rest! Hallelujah anyhow!

I must say again in general we can’t please people. But we certainly can make a sincere effort to please Him. God is our Creator and He has created us to worship, praise and honor Him. He did not make us all the same nor does He want us to be mechanical robots! We must learn to nourish ourselves with His WORD. Apply its principles to our lives and allow the fruits of His divine and Holy Spirit to permeate our being. He will give you discernment and He will allow us to soar! We are to let our lights shine. Jesus died for us! Jesus was persecuted, mistreated, misunderstood and disliked. Yet He never sinned or did ANYTHING WRONG. Yet, “All have sinned and fallen short of His glory." I truly believe God has a plan for the life of each one of His children. But in order to discover that purpose we must develop an ongoing intimate personal relationship with Him. Through the power of His Holy Spirit we can become spiritually whole. We must step out on faith. What is your life focus? Are you living to please God? There is victory through Christ Jesus! TO GOD BE THE GLORY!