Hard to Please

    I am one of those people that wants to please everyone. When someone is mad or upset with me it just eats me alive because fighting is the worst. I always finding myself striving to make differences equaled out but it doesn't always work that way. There are so many different ways of thinking and personalities in this world that there is no way we could possibly please everyone in it. We can definitely try to please everyone that we want but that will stretch us beyond belief. The closest thing the bible says about this topic falls under the category of reconciliation. Pleasing others and reconciling with others are actually two different things. Your first have to be in an actual argument to need reconciliation while pleasing others is the unspoken war that mainly goes on in friendships where one seems to dominate. God actually calls us to please others but not in the way the world says to.

   It is quite confusing reading the bible at times because we are always told to please God and not others. But we are also told to put ourselves aside to please others for the good of Christ. You all know that it is extremely hard to submit our actions and self to people that do not deserve it or even take advantage of it. We also all know that God see's everyone's true motives...and this promise should be enough for us. Without God, pleasing others would be excessively hard but we aren't to do it without him. The discovery of Romans 15 led me to the thoughts that we are living to please others. This lesson kind of shows that doing that can be a good thing or a bad thing but let's see how.

    "We who are strong must be considerate of those who are sensitive about things like this. We must not just please ourselves. We should help others do what is right and build them up in the Lord. For even Christ didn't live to please himself. As the scripture say, "The insults of those who insult you, O God, have fallen on me." Such things were written in the scripture long ago to teach us. And the Scripture gives us hope and encouragement as we wait patiently for God's promises to be fulfilled."
                                            ~Romans 15:1-4

    Those that are strong through Christ Jesus are called to be considerate of the weak about things. Wow....that is definitely hard to not get irritated with people that seem to drag us down. But aren't to just please ourselves we need to do the hard thing in order to do the right thing so others can see the face of God. Even when Christ was on this earth he was the servant in order to be served and look at how stinking awesome God is!! Those times that we address slightly in the beginning of this lesson shows up in verses 3 and 4. Isn't it a little bit more assuring to know that Christ went through the same things that we are going through now. That is evidence right there that the impossible is possible but this is how we are ultimately taught.

    This week think to yourself....how can I please others so that it actually HELPS them? Make sure you are pleasing people but ask God about it first!