How To Please God

                                                                                        

Aloha Dearest Family,

                How do you please God? Perhaps you have asked yourself this question a time or two. After all, God is perfect and He would require perfection in order to please Him, right? Already, that leaves me out. How could I even hope to come close to this standard? But maybe the answer is simpler than I thought.

                If you are a Christian, the hard part is over. For those of us who have confessed Jesus Christ as their Lord, we need to fully understand that all of our sins, sickness, guilt or any other shortcomings we have had, have been paid for by Christ’s death and resurrection. Furthermore, God has given us His gift of holy spirit to dwell within us. We are now completely, complete in Christ. (Colossians 2:10). We now have peace with God, 

               “Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ”. (Romans 5:1)   

Now that we know that we are children of God, like all other children, we strongly desire to please our Father. Not because we have to, but because we want to. A great example of this is Jesus Christ, the original son of God. He said that he always did those things that please his Father.

 

“And He who sent me is with me. The Father has not left me alone, for I always do those things that please Him.” (John 8:29) 

How did he accomplish this? First of all, he must have known what the will of his Father was by studying the scriptures, and then he carried out his Father’s Will. He followed God’s commandments by loving people, giving to people and more specifically, fulfilling his own calling of preaching the good news of the kingdom of God and healing all those that were oppressed of the devil. And God acknowledged that he was pleased, “And there came a voice from heaven, saying, Thou art my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” (Mark 1:11) (Man I would love to hear God say this to me). He also greatly pleased the Father by choosing to become a sacrifice for the sins of all mankind by dying on a tree. Jesus Christ’s total obedience pleased his Father. If we follow Jesus’ example, we will also please God. What are some other ways to please God?

-“But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.” (Hebrews 11:6)

If we don’t have faith in God we will never please God. What does it mean to have faith in God? We must trust in all that He has revealed to us in His Word and that He is faithful to all of His promises. Also we believe that God will reward us if we diligently seek Him. If we do this we will please God.

                   

            -“So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.” (Romans 8:8)

I’ve heard some teach that mankind cannot please God because they are flesh, but God is Spirit. That is not what this verse means. In the context, this verse is speaking about the kind of thoughts we are to hold in our minds. If we look at the prior verses we will learn what Paul was referring to. “For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.” (Romans 8:6-8) If we have godly thoughts we will have life and peace. And we will please God.  

            

            -"I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable(logical) service.“ (Romans 12:1)

In this verse the word “acceptable” means “well pleasing”. But what does it mean to become a living sacrifice? Well if you look at what it took for Jesus to become an actual blood sacrifice for sins, we will have a better idea of what it means. Jesus totally gave up his own will and committed himself wholly to his Father’s will, even though Jesus knew what this would mean. It meant a 40 hour long ordeal of constant beatings and scourgings, followed by an excruciating death nailed to a tree; dying the humiliating death as a vile criminal.

                God does not ask this of us. Because of the great sacrifice that was made for us, our next logical response is to give of ourselves with this same type of commitment that Jesus demonstrated. Not to die for Him, but to live for Him. We owe this to God. This kind sacrifice will be well pleasing to God.

                                                      

                         Love Always, Ray

                “And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.” (II Corinthians 5:15)