Things of the Father

There have been times in our lives where we wanted someone to be proud of us. We wanted to have someone tell us we did a good job. We wanted to be acknowledged for the hard work we did in school or at home. We wanted to know we had done something that others had noticed and wanted to be commended for it.

Most of us take pride in our accomplishments. We work toward a goal and when we complete it we feel like we have done something that made a difference. We feel like we have followed through and created an outcome that was pleasing to others. However, when we don’t get that recognition from others we sometimes feel like no one cares.

When we don’t get the recognition for doing a good job at something, we may feel hurt and insignificant. When others don’t notice and give us praise for what we did, we may feel like they don’t care. When others neglect to mention how well we accomplished a hard task or commend us on doing a good job at something, we may wonder why we even bother.
1 John 2:15-17 "Do not love this world nor the things it offers you, for when you love the world, you do not have the love of the Father in you. For the world offers only a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, and pride in our achievements and possessions. These are not from the Father, but are from this world. And this world is fading away, along with everything that people crave. But anyone who does what pleases God will live forever.”

While the world does offer a craving for physical pleasure and a desire to do good and take pride in what we do, we need to be careful we aren’t searching for approval from the world or others. We could end up spending our lives trying to prove ourselves to the world or make other people happy when what we should be doing is finding out what our Father wants us to do and work to do His will.

The things we need to do to please our Father are far more important than the things of the world. God wants us to love one another. He wants us to do good for one another. He wants us to have a close relationship with Him. When we do the things that please the Father, we will know because we will be able to hear His voice.

Our earthly fathers may or may not be great examples to us because they are merely human. God gave us each a man to be our father but no man can compare to our heavenly Father. When the things of the world get us down and people disappoint us, we know we can turn to God. He will always be there for us. He has been since before we were born and He will be forever.

We need to be sure we are doing the things our Father in heaven wants us to do rather than what the people in the world want us to do. We need to be sure we love nothing or no one more than we love God. We don’t need to worry about what others will say or think if we do or don’t do something. We need to only be conce
ed with what God tells us to do. When we do as God instructs us, then we can make a difference.