Trusting God

"Pleasing God is an incredibly good longing. It always will be. But it can't be our primary motivation, or it will imprison our hearts. Pleasing is not a means to our personal godliness, it is the fruit of our godliness for it is the fruit of trust. We will never please God through our efforts to become godly. Rather, we will only please God - and become godly - when we trust God." - From the book TrueFaced, Thrall, McNicol, Lynch, pages 46 and 47.

"But His joy in those who reverence Him, those who expect him to be loving and kind." - Psalm 147:11

I was raised in the church and greatly benefited from my exposure to church life. This experience, however, was not perfect. The emphasis in church training on the disciplines (i.e. pray, Bible study, etc.) is important but can be detrimental if it becomes the focus of a seeker to place more emphasis on pleasing God than trusting God.

Organized religion can inadvertently perpetuate this problem. Some churches teach: "do x, y, z and you will get to heaven". This violates the New Testament teaching which says: 'For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: (it is) the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast' (Ephesians 2: 8-9). Reconciling your relationship with God is a matter of trusting that Christ paid for your sins on the cross. We must live in that trust on a daily basis. We are to make Christ our Lord and confess that alliance to others.

Lessons From Clark W. Griswold - Episode 1

One of my favorite Christmas movies, 'Christmas Vacation' (not for the kids), tells the story of Clark Griswold's attempt to create the perfect family Christmas reunion. In one of the movie's subplots Clark sets out to decorate the exterior of the house with Christmas lights. Subconsciously he's getting out of the house to avoid his obnoxious, visiting, extended family members. Deep down inside, though, he wants a beautifully decorated house to enhance their Christmas experience.

The resulting, gaudily decorated house requires Clark's town to fire up the back up nuclear generator in order to supply enough power to feed the thousands of lights.

Clark's noble effort is undermined because he is unaware of a single switch that is holding back power from the lights. His house is covered in lights, but he can't get them to illuminate! Clark loses his temper in front of his family members when he lets out his frustration by beating the crap out of the plastic Santa and reindeer in his front yard.

Eventually the challenge is overcome and the entire family communes in the front yard to enjoy the display. Clark's father-in-law mentions that 'the little tiny lights aren't blinking', but Clark graciously responds with 'I know that Art and thank you for noticing'. Nothing will spoil Clark's victory!

Plausibility is the appeal of Christmas Vacation. When you watch Clark's temper tantrum or notice his desire to please his family members, you can probably relate to a similar experience in your own life. Some of us are 'pleasers'. Some of us are always trying to please someone. Some of us work hard at pleasing God.

Ironically, the Bible says that we please God by trusting Him. It says '... without faith it is impossible to please Him (God) , for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him'. You will never be able to live a life good enough to be pleasing to God, your only hope is to begin trusting Him. You've got to put all of your faith in Jesus, that His voluntary death on the cross, in our place, gives us the ability to have a relationship with the hound of heaven.

Question of the Day - Are you trying to please God or have you put your trust in Him?

(Share your answer by clicking 'comments' below.)