We cannot find peace in what people do, because what they do is unpredictable. We can only find peace in what he does, and he is always faithful. When you’re living your life trying to please men, then you will always live with a sense of insecurity and fear, because you will be constantly trying to adjust your behavior to win their approval, acceptance, and applause. This will keep you from boldly living a life of faith before God, because you will always be living a life of fear before men.
John 5:41,44 NASB
[41] I do not receive glory from men; [44] How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and you do not seek the glory that is from the one and only God?
Jesus lives inside of us, that he might live his story through us. He will not live your story through you, nor will he live the story that others want you to live through you. He will only live His story, and His story always includes his power and his provision to tell it, and he will tell a unique version of his story through your unique life. It is true that we are accountable to each other and that we live out our Christian life in the context of the body of Christ, but there’s one thing to be accountable, but that is something different than living insecure, fearing people’s rejection. Jesus said in those verses I quoted from John 5 that he lived to receive glory from God. It is true that he lived to give glory to God, but he also lived to receive glory from God (God’s approval). We receive glory from God when we live our lives concerned ultimatley with pleasing him, and not people. As a matter-of-fact Jesus told them that if they were seeking to receive glory from men, instead of God, then they would not be able to live a life of faith. If you live fearing what people think, or might say about you, then you will not live a life of bold faith, because you will live in fear that what you might do or say will not line up with what people wanted you to do and say. It is so important for us to live for God’s pleasure if we are going to steward well our union with Christ. There will be times where your obedience to the indwelling Christ will cause others to reject you, and those times don’t take Jesus by surprise. You have to remember that if someone walks out of your life because they don’t agree with you about something, you can be certain that if your heart is clear, then his story being told through you, has not ended, it just simply means that their part in the story that Jesus is telling through your particular life maybe over. It doesn’t make them bad people; it may simply mean that the story he is telling through them is to go in a different direction, or it could be that they are walking in some confusion, deception, or brokenness, which God will use in the fullness of time in their life to bring about their wholeness. Sometimes the mistakes that people make, become down the road, the very things that God uses to open their eyes and finally set them free. Therefore, if rejecting you means their ultimate healing someday, then enter in to the suffering of the Lord and rest in the fact that by your stripes (thier rejection of you) they will be healed one day. Do you love them enough to be good with that. Do you love Jesus enough to be good with that, knowing that he is pleased with you.