Pleasing God
“Jesus said, ‘I do nothing on my own initiative, but I speak the things the Father taught Me. He who sent Me is with Me; He has not left Me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to Him’ (John 8:28-29).
When walking on this earth, Jesus had as His ambition to please His Father and honor Him by doing what He had been commissioned to do from before the foundation of the world, redeem fallen mankind.
Following his encounter with Jesus on the Damascus Road, the Apostle Paul had one driving ambition, “Therefore we have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him” (II Corinthians 5:9).
Paul’s admonition to those of us who follow Christ is, “…walk as children of Light (for the fruit of Light consists in all goodness and righteousness and truth), trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord” (Ephesians 5:8-10).
One of the endeavors of marriage is to discover what it is that pleases our mate. This endeavor never ends because our marriages go through seasons. I have been married to my dear Sandy for nearly forty-nine and I am still on that path of discovery. The learning to which Paul calls us, is also a learning that never ends.
The question is, how much thought do we give in regard to our thoughts, our words, and our actions…always pleasing the Lord? Paul’s admonition to the Corinthians was, “Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” (I Corinthians 10:31). When we are endeavoring to do whatever it is we do, to the glory of God, we will also be pleasing to God.
In his first epistle, the Apostle John made a direct link between answered prayer and our being pleasing to God. “Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God; and whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do the things that are pleasing in His sight” (I John 3:21-22).
As God’s children in Christ, may our greatest ambition daily be, to be pleasing to our God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
