Our human natures tend to struggle just a bit with submission. Embedded in the word is a sense that someone else is better or more important and can do a better job leading our lives than we can ourselves.

Actually, that is exactly what submission is for! We should consider submitting to God’s leadership a joy because we know his perfection can be trusted. Why then do we allow our human natures to rule us instead?

Pleasing God requires our submission, knowledge, and acceptance that God is better at running our lives than we are. This is especially true when it comes to our ministries. We want to please God, and we know the things that please him. But another factor is a key component to actually pleasing him.

Paul told the Philippians, “It is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.” The key to pleasing God is submitting to his will and allowing him to work in and through our lives, to accomplish whatever is “his good pleasure.”

The biggest mistake most of us make is thinking the work of the ministry is our work instead of God’s work through us. When we think we know what God wants to do, we might fail to ask God what we should do. Submitting to God requires the understanding that, until we ask, we only think we know.

Which committee of people would decide to build a giant ark, step into a flooded river, or trust a man is their Messiah? Many of the things God will ask us to do will require our faith rather than our best ideas.

Wisdom is pleasing God. Which ideas do you need to wisely lay at God’s feet because you want him to work through you for his good pleasure?