Living to please God

If we live to please God alone, we set ourselves free from the cares and worries that press in on us. The worry about money, about what we need to have and to know, about whom to compete with, and what is slipping out of our control. So many of my own cares trace back to concern over other people: whether I measure up to their expectations, whether they find me desirable. Living for God alone involves a radical reorientation, a stripping away of anything that might lure me from the primary goal of pleasing God. Living in faith involves me pleasing God, far more than God pleasing me. The awareness of living for God will gradually colour each mundane task, and one will find oneself treating people with more care and respect, and worrying less about finances and the other worries of life.

- 'Reaching for the Invisible God', Chapter 6: Living in Faith, by Philip Yancey