For they loved the glory that comes from man more than the glory that comes from God - John 12:43
It is a human instinct to seek validation. We all want to be affirmed, understood, and recognized.
This is not inherently a bad thing. On the contrary, it's a very good thing.
It is one of the safeguards against psychopathy and narcissism.
If we simply didn't care about receiving validation, then that would mean that we would be 100% self-satisfied with every belief and opinion we held. It wouldn't matter how obviously wrong or clearly destructive, our beliefs were - if the only source of validation came from ourselves, then we would never look anywhere else apart from our own personal biases for Truth. We would be incapable of growing or learning anything new.
When we seek validation, we are in essence asking, "is this belief of mine true? Is this action of mine right? Is this idea of mine good?"
This is a good thing. We should genuinely want to believe true things, take right actions, and have good ideas. And we should be humble enough to recognize that we have personal blind spots that will often hinder us from coming to proper conclusions.
The problem is not with seeking validation.
The problem is where we are seeking that validation.
When we seek it from other people, we are essentially trying to measure something with a faulty ruler. Other people have biases and blind spots just like we do. It is entirely possible to receive someone else's validation for doing something completely wrong. It is also possible to seek out the validation from certain people who we already secretly know are going to tell us what we want to hear, and thus confirm our own biases.
If we are going to live a life characterized by Truth, then we can't be seeking validation just from any source, we need to seek validation from a source that is completely objective, truthful, and good... we need to be seeking the validation of God.
In other words, we must not seek the glory that comes from men but only the glory that comes from God.
God should be the only One whom we seek validation. He is the only one who will give us the correct advice 100% of the time, and He is also the only one whose validation can truly satisfy us.
Next week we will discuss what this looks like practically and how Jesus Christ is the only Way to truly, fully, and safely receive God's validation.
So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him - 2 Cor 5:9
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