"My people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living water, and dug out cisterns for themselves, cracked cisterns that can hold no water" (Jer. 2:13).
As I was sharing with someone what the Lord had shown me about approval, he showed me more. The scripture above says it all.
There is one source of all approval - Him. Any approval (blessing/declared to be satisfactory) that comes to me through others has its source in Him. And the fact is, we usually seek approval from those we esteem. I have a tendency to seek it from those I consider better than myself or higher than myself. All of this happens subconsciously, of course - but it happens nonetheless. And it affects my daily experience and relationships. The truth is this: that God alone is the source of my approval. Anytime I think a person is the source, I will be disappointed and hurt. God, in his mercy, has stacked the deck and cornered the market on approval. Thanks be to God!
I have a tendency to want the approval of certain others. So I looked up the word. After reading several definitions, here's my own:
Approval - 1. something given by another (like a blessing; in fact, it is blessing); 2. to be satisfactory or pleasing to another.
#1 is objective; #2 is subjective - and yet, both give tremendous insight into a root problem: I won't be pleasing and satisfactory at all times. Also, I won't always be given approval. Now, I'm talking on the human level. I will not please everybody all the time; I will fail others at some point. That's a given. The other side of the coin is that others can not give me what I need all the time; they will fail me at some point. This, too, is a given. Here's another fact to face: I do not know when the failures and disappointments will come; I just know they will. This is truth! And truth will set you free. But, like all truth, before it can do me any good, it has to be believed and accepted thankfully.
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