“Pleasing God” or “Trusting God”. If you had to pick between these two where would you land?
That question was raised in material our accountability group was discussing not long ago. Both seem good don’t they?
The catch comes if we seek to please God by self-effort. You know what I mean, we work hard at saying the right things, we work hard at doing the right things, we work hard at stopping a bad habit, we work hard at…you fill in the rest. We’re working hard but it isn’t quite enough we fear, in fact we begin to doubt whether we will ever be able to please God.
Trusting God is different. It takes my focus off of what I am going to do for God and places it on what God is going to do in me. Sure I still have the same hang-ups, the same hurts, the same sin issues; but instead of a bunch of self-effort to improve myself, I am looking to God to change me, from the inside out. As he does that transformational work in me, I begin to live a life that is truly pleasing to him.
What pathway are you on right now? Pleasing God? Trusting God?
Speaking for myself, I spent the first 9 of the last 10 years working on pleasing God. From my own experience, trying to please Him left me empty, stressed out and hopeless. As Solomon said, I was chasing after the wind. The last year has been more about trusting and it led to a most peaceful time. Being pretty thick on the best of days, it often is a struggle, but with His faithfulness and forgiveness, I am now able to get back to trusting Him instead of having to play catch up on my pleasing everytime I fail.