Perhaps you have gotten caught up in pleasing other people at the expense of pleasing God. If so, you know it is a form of bondage.

"What other people think" can be a harsh taskmaster. You can be afraid to look too prosperous. You can be afraid to look too confident. You can get so caught up in worrying about the way people perceive you that you become ineffective as a servant of God.

I have liberating news for you: You cannot please people. Someone is going to criticize you no matter what you do. So, you might as well go ahead and please God. Trying to please people will not get your bills paid or your children saved. Pleasing others will not get you healed.

Quit killing yourself trying to serve other people and get busy serving God! It pays tremendous dividends. The Apostle Paul knew this: "For do I now persuade men, or God? Or do I seek to please men? For if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ" (Gal. 1:10).

As Paul says, you cannot be a man-pleaser and still wholeheartedly serve Christ. The root of all man-pleasing is a spirit of fear; specifically, the fear of people.

Get rid of it, or you risk missing out on all the glory and victory God has planned for you.

Source: Uprooting the Spirit of Fear by Creflo A. Dollar, Jr.
Excerpt permission granted by Harrison House Publishers