Who Are We Trying to Impress?

Verse of the Day: 1 Samuel 17:55, When Saul saw David going out against the Philistine, he said to Abner, the commander of the army, “Abner, whose son is this youth?” And Abner said, “As your soul lives, O king, I do not know.”

A good question to ask ourselves every day, and often, is, “Who am I trying to impress?” Far too often we waste a lot of time trying to impress people who are not impressed or only impressed for a short period of time. We sin against God, we stray from truth, we do silly things that have no heavenly worth, in our futile, wasted, attempts to impress people. Our pride drives us to do whatever we need to do to get the accolades and pat on the back. In Matthew 6:1-2 Jesus said, “Take heed that you do not do your charitable deeds before men, to be seen by them. Otherwise you have no reward from your Father in heaven. 2 Therefore, when you do a charitable deed, do not sound a trumpet before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory from men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward.” Sadly, many of us put more value in receiving compliments from people than we do in living right before God. If we do what is right before God, we do it in such a way as to seek man’s approval by having them announce what a good deed we have done. I say all of this because we make the mistake of trading heavenly reward for 5 seconds of fame. David has just defeated an enemy that everyone else was afraid to confront. His actions motivated King Saul and Israel to pursue the Philistines in victory. Yet, here we have Saul inquiring about who David was. This said something about both David and Saul. First, Saul should have known who David was, considering David was the one who played music for him to calm him whenever the distressing spirit came upon him in chapter 16. As a matter of fact, that same chapter tells us that Saul loved David and made him his armorbearer. Wait…let’s take it one step further. Did not Saul put armor on David right before he went out to fight Goliath? Did not he and David have a dialogue about how God delivered the lion and bear into David’s hands, and how this was why David was so confident that God would do the same with Goliath? Had David done all this to impress Saul, it would have been wasted because Saul had already forgotten who David was in such a short period of time, and demonstrated that he had no real interest in knowing who David was (until it benefited him). Jesus experienced the same thing when He had His triumphant entry to Jerusalem and the people cried, “Hosanna!” Yet, a short while later these same people cried, “Crucify Him!” (Matthew 21:9; 27:16-26). David, on the other hand, did not look to impress Saul. After being made the king’s armorbearer, he returned home to tend to his family’s sheep. When he shared what was done with the lion and the bear, he did not take credit in order to make Saul think that he was some mighty warrior. Instead, he shared it in such a way as to give God the glory. When we do what we do or share testimony of what we accomplish, who are we trying to impress? Are we trying to impress men/women who have short memories and will condemn us just as quickly as they will pat us on the back, or are we more interested in lifting God up in our lives for His glory? I must remind us that the things we think are impressive, and may impress people, are not going to impress God. He will reward us for that which is reward-worthy, but until we can create by simply speaking or bring ourselves back from the grave on our own, we are not going to impress God. Let us put our pride in check, stop wasting time trying to impress people, and humbly live for, and serve, the only One with whom we need to be right with…Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior. I have said this before, but it bears repeating. This life is not about us. It is about our Lord, our God.

Today, God extends an invitation to you to accept His gift of salvation (Rom 6:23). Will you accept it? Anyone who calls on Jesus, by faith, in repentance, confessing your sins, will receive eternal life. Do not put off calling on Him, and receive Him and His gift of salvation today (Rom 10:13).