Focus on God, Not Man

God, help me see the importance of turning my eyes to You and not to others.

Isaiah 2:22  “Stop regarding man, whose breath of life is in his nostrils; For why should he be esteemed?”

Isaiah was a prophet whose job was to tell the people of God, the Israelites, what God wanted from them. In the first two chapters of Isaiah, he was telling them that their lives were not pleasing God. They had totally abandoned everything He had asked of them. Isaiah told them that although their land was filled with gold and silver, they had turned away from God, their one true treasure.

He told them of God’s coming judgment, and that they would abandon all their gold and silver to live in caves, trying to escape the wrath of God. He ended his prophecy in chapter 2 by asking them why they regarded man. See, the people of Israel cared more about what their neighbors and friends thought than what God thought. They had focused on gold, silver, and material things and had totally neglected their God, who gave them life. Through Isaiah God told them to stop worrying so much about man, who does not give life, and to worry about their relationship with Him, Who holds both life and death in His hands.

“Stop worrying about man”, is something I often hear from God. Sometimes, we get so caught up in caring about other people’s opinions of us that we forget that what they think is nothing compared to what God thinks of us. Our goal in life should be to please God, not man. We may value our friends’ opinions, and even ask for them, but those friends didn’t give us life or die on the cross so we could be with them. And though our families are amazing gifts from God, and we should obey and honor our parents, ultimately we have to obey The One Who gave everything for us. As hard as it is, we have to intentionally focus on God and try and please Him and not man.

The next time you are wondering what someone else thinks about you, ask yourself, “What does God think about me right now?”