The audience rose to its feet with clamorous applause. It had been her finest performance, one she had lived and relived in her mind since her first piano lesson. Taking her second bow, her eyes scanned the crowded concert hall for the reaction of one particular person. Her mother, the personification of perfectionism, had proven to be the most difficult to please. She always managed to hear the one missed note. One measure was too fast, the other too loud. The tempo was off or the mood wasn’t set.

Butterflies fluttered wildly in her stomach, as she anticipated the response. Would this finally be the moment of affirmation? Would she at last give the nod of approval? Could this actually be the performance that met her toughest critic’s expectations? “Oh,” she thought with desperation, “let it be so.”

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My heart is confident in you, O God;
No wonder I can sing your praises.
Wake up, my soul! (Ps. 108:1)

The heart that finds its confidence in God, and God alone is the one that sings the truest praises. Otherwise, it sings its own.

Let’s be honest. We waste so much time building our own kingdoms, affirming our own good works, anxiously waiting for others to notice. Why? Because our confidence is not in God. If it were, we would have no need of any other approval. No complements necessary, thank you very much. No yearning for attention. No urgency to be included.

Imagine, being so free that all that matters is being accepted and loved by God. Ready for this? You ARE accepted and loved by God. Totally. Without exception. Without condition. The only question is the “all that matters” part. A new-found, delirious kind of freedom is forever ours when we truly look to Him alone as our source of confidence. When we wave goodbye to the disease to please.

Will we ever strip ourselves once and for all of the heavy cloak of man-pleasing? Will we ever echo the words of Jesus, “Your approval or disapproval means nothing to me….“? (John 5:41) Probably not. But in those brief, rare moments of that freedom — when we care more about what Jesus thinks of us than anyone else in the world — do we not find ourselves liberated beyond our imaginations?

Wake up, my soul! Wake up to the realization that God’s approval is all you need, and you already have it! Wake up, my soul, to the truth that your confidence is all about God, not all about you! Wake up, my soul, and be set free! NOW, you can sing His praises!