Exhausted Trying to Please

Micah 6: ⁸ He has shown you, O mortal, what is good.
    And what does the Lord require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
    and to walk humbly with your God.

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Figuring out what the boss wanted was a puzzle and I was losing sleep. I would wake up in the middle of the night thinking about work so I would jump out of bed, labor for a couple of hours then fall asleep for the remaining fifteen or twenty minutes before the alarm. I would then try to present my work only to be brushed off to do more laborious tasks. “What does he want?” I would exclaim!

• Sometimes I get exhausted trying to please others.
• Sometimes I get weary trying to guess at what others want from me.
• Sometimes I get fatigued trying so hard to get things right that I lose sleep and feel even more tired!

“What do YOU want from me?” is an expression I have also used on GOD. I mean when I wasn’t getting my way I would try to do what GOD wanted me to do in a measured way. I would pray more, give more and show up to church more. I would even reduce my sins for good measure.

Then when I did not get my way, I would tell the LORD the list of things I had done so HE could eventually relent on holding back from my long past due rewards. I would then ask again “What do YOU want from me?”

• GOD says to me “I want you to act justly to MY people.”
• GOD says to me “I want you to love the mercy I have shown you.”
• GOD says to me “I want you to walk humbly with ME, your GOD.”

CHRIST walked the earth showing me how life really should be done. HE set the example by showing even HIS enemy’s compassion. HE expressed HIS unfailing love in an extreme gentle way. The problem is sometimes the things I want may not be part of HIS plans. In fact they may conflict with HIM.

Any time I am anxious, nervous and afraid I must ask myself “Am I fighting GOD or serving HIM? GOD is not hard to please. HE was so pleased that HE became a human to die in my place. HE simply wants me to look at HIS example and follow them daily. That’s all.

• Are you exhausted trying to please others?
• Are you exhausted trying to please GOD?
• Can you stop “trying” so hard and just “be” the person GOD wants you to be?
• Will you stop downing yourself and others around you so you can add praise back into your life?