To Please Him or to Trust Him?

We all want to please God. But what happens when our desire to please Him goes too far.

When we begin to depend upon our efforts to please God, we quickly step out of the territory of trust. We soon begin to trust in our efforts for Him, rather than simply trusting Him. What's the difference?
Well, when I'm living my life to please Him, failure is deadly. In my own mind, when I fall I am not pleasing to Him. So every time I fail, I pick myself up and redouble my efforts to please Him. I try harder. I begin to work harder on my sin, and my shortcomings, and all of the hang-ups in my life - all because I want to please Him.
But it's an exhausting way to live. And when I get tired, I get cranky, maybe even cynical. It's like trying to climb a slippery slope in tennis shoes; progress is painfully slow. Every misstep causes me to feel a bit more like pleasing Him is an impossible goal.

On the other hand, when I trust Him we face my problems together. Me and the Lord take inventory and I stop trying to hide the stuff I know won't please Him. Instead, I trust Him to take care of it for me. I begin to believe His grace is greater than all of the garbage I've been hauling around with me.
When I trust Him, I stop trying to fix it all myself. I can't. By faith, I know He will.

That was Jesus' message to people who'd been striving their entire lives to please God. Their religion had evolved from trusting God - (Abraham "believed in the Lord; and He counted it to him for righteousness." Gen. 15:6) - to trying to please Him. The method they followed wasn't much different than ours: They followed laws. "Do this, and don't do that." "Keep these laws and God will be pleased with you."
Then one day, they stood before Jesus (John 6:28-29):
They said therefore to Him, "What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?"
Jesus answered and said to them, "This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He hath sent."

"What shall we do?"the people asked. "Believe," Jesus answered. Just trust Him. How freeing is that?
Stop working so hard. Stop worrying. Stop striving to do the impossible. Just trust Him. That's really all He wants from us. You see, to trust Him is to please Him. "Without faith it is impossible to please Him."