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the audience


Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance. It is the Lord Christ whom you serve.


The band took their place on the stage for what should have been a normal concert.  They had prepared, and their sound was really good earlier in the day.  Every person in every section was excited about sharing their talent and their music with the audience who would be attending the concert that night.

Warming up was normal, but the room felt a bit odd.  Few people had come in the auditorium at this point.  It was getting close to performance time.  You could feel the tension building among the members of the band.  Where was the audience?  Where were their families and friends and those who always said they loved the music?  Again only a few people showed up for the concert.

The music was top notch with perfect sound from start to finish, but every thing was still strange.  There had never been a concert as such where the audience was so small.  Conversations after the concert were centered not on their performance but on the audience.  That was until they realized who was in the room.  The low lighting didn’t allow them to realize that a distinguished guest had joined them.  Learning this fact would change everyone’s thoughts of how the night went.

Those few but fantastic applause came from someone who wanted to hear their music and was filled with excitement just as the band was.  This was a night for everyone to remember.

Looking back I have to tell you that this might be one of many concerts but not one in particular.  I simply want to draw your attention to the fact that the most important person in the room is not one member of the band or the crowd in audience.  The most important person in the room is the person who made up the “audience of one”.  This person is God.

God loves you.  He has a plan for your life.  His desire is for your good and your abundance.  Nothing will change those facts.  That is why we have to prepare for this audience of one.  Whether ten thousand people show up or one person shows up, give it your all because it matters.  You matter to God, and what you do matters to Him as well.

God doesn’t ask up to preform well so He will love us more.  In fact God already loves us as much as He will ever love us.  That won’t change.  What will change is how much we love Him.  By preparing for and recognizing Him we change.

What audience are you preforming for?  Are you trying to make people like you?  Is it your mom or your dad that you are trying to win the approval of?  There is only one person’s approval who really matters, and that person is God.

Set your eyes and your heart on Him.  Let Him enjoy your life and your commitment to Him.  Watch how the honor and the blessings seem to flow your direction because you begin to think of Him and not what others think.  It is not about preforming or being perfect.  It is about honoring the one who loves us most and the one we will ultimately spend more time with than anyone else.

The audience does matter.  And our audience is God.  He looks on as a loving Father who delights in His child.  He looks on and He gets involved in the lives of His children filling us with amazing life.  Life is sweeter as we figure out the audience!

Then the way you live will always honor and please the Lord, and your lives will produce every kind of good fruit. All the while, you will grow as you learn to know God better and better.

May we spend our new year focusing on and getting to know Jesus more and more.

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