Live Dead Joy: 30 Days of Living and Dying with JesusSample

“Disappointment’s Destiny”

Jacob was married to four women, three of whom he did not choose. Rachel missed out on her own wedding and was barren because her rival was unloved. Leah, perhaps most disappointed of all, was given to someone who loved another.

Leah longed to be loved. She tried so hard to win her husband’s affection. If only she could produce sons—then her husband would love her, then she would be appreciated, then she would be wanted. None of her efforts to please others were accomplished, and in the end her disappointment led her to God’s intended destiny: praise. At the end of futile efforts to please others comes the realization that what we should have been doing all along is praising the Lord.

It is not only futile to live a life that seeks the approval of others, it is also wicked. “The wicked in his proud countenance does not seek God; God is in none of his thoughts” (Ps. 10:4). It is sobering to realize that our pursuit of affirmation from people is wickedness. It is sin to be more concerned what people think of us (even good people, even fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters) than what God thinks of us. God must be in our thoughts. When we do not live for His approval, we sin wickedly.

This is what it means to live a life worthy of Jesus (Matt. 10:37). We live most concerned about honoring Him, dedicated to winning His approval. Jesus has to be supreme in our affections, confessions, and attentions. When we stop trying to please others—when we care first for what Jesus thinks, and we constantly confess Christ above man or woman—we join Leah in praise. Our lives declare, “Now, we will praise the Lord.”

Pray for the Unreached:

Firozkohi Muslims of Afghanistan

296,000

0.0% Evangelicals

Pray that believers among the Firozkohi would proclaim the message of the gospel clearly and would make the most of every opportunity God places before them (Col. 4:2-5).