BubbaSmith.net

¹⁰ Obviously, I’m not trying to win the approval of people, but of God. If pleasing people were my goal, I would not be Christ’s servant.                                                                                                       Galatians 1:10

It’s hard to go through life not wanting people to like you, to be impressed by you, or even wanting others to envy you. But in reality, not that many people are thinking about you as much as you think they are anyway. My friend Zack Blair taught me this truth when I was asking him his opinion about what I thought others thought about a decision I was making and he said, “Bubba, people don’t wake up every morning thinking about you.” Ouch! Haha! But it’s true!

I’ve heard it said that we spend the majority of our lives trying to impress people we don’t even like and in this case, that don’t even really think about us as much as we think they do.

I was thinking along these lines and the question came up, “What if I lived and died, and nobody remembered me?” Because in reality – regardless of what I do in life, 50 years after I die, nobody is going to remember me.

My conclusion: What I do in life will matter in eternity. Jesus said to Peter that he should have one focus in life if he loved Him: “Feed His Sheep.“  I believe that is God’s call on all of our lives – to point people to Him. That’s it. If that becomes our focus in life – lifting people and pointing them to God -> we’ll be free from wanting to please and impress people and our focus will turn to pleasing God.

“What we do in life, echoes in eternity”

And while people here won’t remember me, there will be people in Heaven as a result of what I did while I was here. They will come up to me and you in Heaven and say, “Thank you for pointing me to Jesus, I’m here because of you.” I’d rather have 1 person tell me that I made a difference in their lives for eternity than 10,000 remember my name in 5 years.

Application? Lift people and point them to Him. Stop caring what people think of you. God will remember what you did for His Kingdom, and so will the people that are in Heaven because of your life – that is all that matters so do what God has called you to do and at the end of your life you’ll be able to say along with the apostle Paul - I’ve fought the good fight and finished my race and to the people I’ve touched, it’ll have made all the difference.

“And we know that God causes everything to work together for the GOOD of those who love God and are called according to His purpose.”        -Romans 8:28

Steps

Get in a Good Church – Once you’ve made the God decision, you need to get in a good church that actually teaches the Bible. Unfortunately, it’s because of the teaching of a lot of churches that we even have to make the God decision. You must know that God is good, He loves you, and He has a great plan for your life.

Surround Yourself with People that Will Give You the Truth -As I said yesterday, getting around friends and family is great, but it’s not enough. As far as surrounding yourself with people – you need to get around people who will speak the Word of God into your life, encourage you, push you through, and enable you to see that there really is a bright future ahead of you.

Take Your time Grieving, But Then Move On – it is perfectly ok to grieve and let your emotions go for a period of time. The problem is people who let it go on for years and years and never move on. In II Sam. 12:15-23 it talks about David grieving over His son while he was ill, but once his son passed away, he went back to normal life,there was nothing more he could do. I’m not saying you forget about the person or won’t miss them, I’m simply saying that you don’t let the emotions take control of you any longer than necessary.  Have people help you through this process…

Be Thankful for the Time You Did Have with Them - So many times we focus on all the things we won’t get to do with that person. “They won’t be at my wedding, see my kids, etc.” while this is true, we never focus on the time we did have with them, most likely because we took it for granted. When you become thankful for all the good times you had with them and all the time you got to spend with them, it really helps you though the process.

Tomorrow I want to talk about the impact the loss of a loved one should have on you….

Thoughts?

“And we know that God causes everything to work together for the GOOD of those who love God and are called according to His purpose.”                                                                       Romans 8:28

The Loss of My Mom

For those of you who don’t know my story, I lost my mom when I was a senior in high school. She was sick for the majority of my life and I saw a lot of suffering throughout the process.  After losing her I realized what it’s like to lose a mom, to see a husband lose a wife, to see parents lose their daughter, and to see friends lose a great friend.

Since my mom passed I’ve seen a lot of people lose people dear to them. Everyone seems goes through the grieving process in their own way. I’d like to share my thoughts on getting through storms as big as these can be and what got me through.

Experiences like this can cripple people for a lifetime. They can also stand as a period in your life that while they seemed like the most devastating time in your life, God will turn it into something great. If you’ll give your hurt over to God, I promise your life will never remain the same.

Though it may not seem like it, the difference between the two is simply a choice.

Tomorrow I’ll start to share some things I’ve learned that I pray will help you if you’re currently going through something as tough as losing a loved one.

In the mean time, I strongly encourage you to watch this sermon by Louie Giglio. The message starts about 29 minutes into the video. Definitely a life changing message that will help you out.