No Regrets
TODAY’S
SCRIPTURE
Am I now trying to win the approval of human beings, or
of God? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still trying to please
people, I would not be a servant of Christ.
Galatians 1:10, NIV.
TODAY’S
WORD
I read a report from a nurse who takes care of people who
are close to death. She asked hundreds of patients in the last twelve weeks of
their life what their biggest regret was. The number one regret reported was,
“I wish I had been true to who I was and not just lived to meet the
expectations of others.”
How many people today are not being true to who God
created them to be simply because they are afraid they’re going to disappoint
somebody? They’re afraid they may fall out of someone else’s good grace. They
worry about not being accepted into a certain group. I say this respectfully,
but you cannot live trying to be who your parents want you to be, or who your
boss wants you to be, or who your friends want you to be. You’ve got to stay
true to who God has called you to be.
Today, make the decision to live life with no regrets.
Surrender yourself wholeheartedly to who God created you to be. Let Him mold
and shape your character. Let Him order your steps. As you submit your ways to
Him, He will shine down on you, and you will live the fulfilled, abundant life
He has prepared for you!
PRAYER
FOR TODAY
Father God, thank You for loving me and accepting me just
the way I am. It is my heart’s desire to know You and to be known by You. Help
me to live the life You’ve called me to and be faithful to You always in Jesus’
Name. Amen.
***
“By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin.” (Hebrews 11:24-25 NIV)
Be yourself. Don't try to be somebody else. God made you for a purpose; he made you for a plan. There's nobody who can be you except you.
Moses had to deal with this at the very beginning of his life. In Egypt the baby Jewish boys were condemned to die, so his mother put him in a little boat in the Nile River. It happened that the daughter of Pharaoh was taking a bath, and she took this little boy back into the palace to raise him as her own son.
Moses had an identity crisis. He was born Jewish, but he was raised Egyptian. He had to ask himself at some point in his life, "Who am I?” This was quite an important choice because it would determine the rest of his life. He was in line to be Pharaoh. If he said, "I'm an Egyptian" and faked his heritage, he would live a life of ease. He would have an outstanding career. He would have fame and fortune.
If he said what he really was — Jewish — he would be humiliated, kicked out of the palace, and sent to live with a bunch of slaves for the rest of his life.
Yet Moses saw his people being badly mistreated as slaves, and he could not be silent. He was a man of character and integrity. He could not quell his conscious. So he made a decision that cost him the next 80 years of his life.
Hebrews 11:24 says, "By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh's daughter” (NIV). The word “refused” in the Greek literally means to reject, deny, to totally disown. Moses cut himself off from a promising career as an Egyptian, and he refused to live a lie. Instead, he wanted to do what God had made him to do.
There's something liberating about just being yourself. The quickest way to an ulcer is to try to be somebody you're not. If you want to live an effective life, just relax and be yourself.
Talk About It
What differences do you notice — physically, emotionally, and in the way you treat others — when you are not trying to be anyone but yourself?
What circumstances in your life pressure you to be someone you are not? What can you do differently?
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