“What do people want?”

It’s a strategy question. Churches, ministries, businesses and lives have been designed around that one question. And that question hides a lot of questions we don’t ask.

What will make us popular? What will make us look good? What will make us bigger? What will make people like us? What will make us the most successful? What will make people approve of us?

People pleasing is rarely about other people, it’s about our obsession with us. We need to change our obsession, so that we change our question.

“What does God want?”

With that question alone burning in our hearts, we can change the world.

The gospel would be preached. Disciples would be made. We would freely give what we have been given – money and time, grace and love. Prayer would be our first strategy. Obedience would be our second.

Whether or not an altar call would offend people would be dead last.

We would rely on God and expect little from people – not the other way around. We would bend to help the fallen rather than bending over backwards to please the upright.

We would rather be pierced by truth than tickled by a lie. And we would want the same for others. The fickleness of the hearts of men would take a backseat to the unchanging heart of God. His strategy would become ours. We would decrease and He would increase. We would put others before ourselves, for the right reason.

Because we asked the right question.

“Am I now trying to win the approval of men, or of God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ.” Galatians 1:10