To Trust...To Please

Definitions:
to please- to give a person satisfaction in what you have done or accomplished
to trust- to rely upon, to put confidence in someone or something

Not your normal start to a blog post but this concept of pleasing someone and trusting someone or something came up this weekend at church. We are starting a new series at church going through our Cause and talking about what that means for our lives as Christians. I won't get into much of that in this post but will hopefully be able to distinguish between trusting and pleasing.

Of course noting the definitions above, one will know that these two words don't have the same definitions and mean completely different things depending on the situation or experience one may have. Pleasing someone isn't the same as trusting that same person. You can please someone but may not trust that person or vice versa.

Now to get a little deeper into this subject (and I do apologize to those who may not have a relationship with Jesus) about Pleasing God vs. Trusting God. Pleasing God is doing well, working towards a goal and not breaking any rules or laws that are put forth to "be a good Christian". Pleasing God is like earning favor with God; wanting to always be the best no matter what you need to get to that place.

Hmm, it seems to me that Pleasing God requires much time and energy on your part to "do good" and to "not get into trouble". That doesn't sounds like my idea of fun, it sounds boring, too hard and not allowing God to have control. Oh wait.... I can be guilty of that at times but that's not what I want my life to be about all the time. I want my life to be built around trust.

Trusting God is that simple.. Trust.......God. Sounds easy enough, where do I sign up. Oh wait. It's more than that? You mean I have to give all my life up to him? Wow, let me think about that. All through my life I thought I was in charge. I thought I was the one who needed to know what I was to do next. You mean you're telling me that's not the case? This was exactly my reaction when I first became a Christ Follower. You see, I had my life all planned out. I knew what I was going to be when I grew up, what type of car I was going to be driving and even what school I was going to be attending.

Once God took ahold of my life, things were never the same. I learned that trusting God was a lot more what I wanted to do because He along knows the best for my life.

This isn't about me but I wanted to show everyone why I chose to trust God and not merely pleasing God. You may have those moments where you fall back into Pleasing God and just barely able to stay above the water but then there are those moments of clarity where the Trusting God seems so much better and you are now floating on the water.

Trust vs. Please.. Sounds like an easy decision. what will you choose?