Keeping Up Appearances
Romans 12:3 For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. (ESV)
Can I ask you how much of your time and energy you spend in keeping up appearances, in impressing other people? Come on, on a scale of zero to ten, how much effort do you put into that stuff? And my second question is … is it really worth it?
I don’t think that there’s one of us who doesn’t want other people to think well of us. And so what we end up doing, particularly in a world dominated by the idea of “success”, is living our lives to impress other people.
Have you ever met someone like that? All they care about is what other people think of them. It’s all about living in the right suburb, driving the right car, being seen at the right parties, in the right clothes, with the right people.
But every now and then you meet someone who may well be “important”, or someone who’s achieved a lot in life – perhaps they’re well known even – and you discover that they just see themselves as an ordinary person. They like to do ordinary things and hang around with ordinary people like you and me.
So, which one of those two types of people do you prefer – the one who’s trying to impress you or the one who just pulls up next to you, as it were? The Apostle Paul once wrote this:
Romans 12:3 For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. (ESV)
So how much of your energy, your thoughts, your time, do you spend trying to impress other people?
Here’s a thought. Just be the best you that you can be. Who cares what other people think?!
That’s God’s Word. Fresh … for you … today.
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Tangu
Timely message…….. Thank you
Timely message…….. Thank you