Articles From Our Bulletins
Pleasing God
Growing up as a boy at home there were a few occasions when I put myself in positions where I had to answer to my parents for my inappropriate actions. Mind you now, there weren’t that many times this happened but there were times when it did. Anyway, my dad was the “muscle” behind the appropriate discipline sometimes required and he was more than capable in leaving a lasting impression on me that what I had done…. was not to be repeated again. Mother, on the other hand, was different. She, physically, was not in any way intimidating to me. At barely 5 feet and slow of foot I was not only taller, physically stronger, but also faster than she was. But, as I said, it was different with her. What made it so was not the physical pain she might have inflicted on me….but it was just the fact that my actions had “disappointed” her. She “expected more” of me. Not to say Dad did not, but with Mother it was a much higher expectation. She knew I could be better, do better,…. live better. In the years that followed it was the fear of disappointing her that made the difference sometimes in which path I chose to follow or action I was considering. I wanted her to be “pleased with me”.
It ought to be that way too in regards to God…a fear of disappointing Him….not pleasing Him….this should be a motivating factor in the choices we all make. David would write in Ps 51:19 that God is “pleased”, in part, “by the sacrifices of the righteous”. In Ps 69:30-31 David writes: “I will praise the name of God with a song, and will magnify Him with thanksgiving. (This) also shall please the Lord better than an ox or bullock that hath horns or hoofs.” (KJV). Micah continues that same thought when he writes in Micah 6:6-7 a series of questions: ….( vs 6 ) “Wherewith shall I come before the Lord, (and) bow myself before the high God? Shall I come before Him with burnt offerings, with calves of a year old? ( vs 7 ) Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, (or) with ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn (for) my transgression, the fruit of my body (for) the sin of my soul? The answers to the questions is the same for each….No. The real pleasure God has is, in essence, found in vs 8… “to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God”. It was a primary focus, if not the primary focus, of Jesus our Lord upon this earth to “please” His father in all he did. Christ would say, (concerning God the Father) , in John 8:29…”for I do always those things that please Him”. And the apostle Paul would in writing to the churches of Galatia in Galatians 1:10 that his preaching of the gospel was not directed to pleasing men but to please God. Because, as Paul would write, “If I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ. “
With these things in mind…a few questions for us all.
1. Am I (we) living each moment of each day to be pleasing unto God?
2. Is our primary focus to bring glory to His name?
3. Am I wanting, in all I do, to Honor Him and do my actions reflect that desire?
Let’s all make a determination today to live our lives truly seeking to be pleasing unto our Father in heaven. Let’s all have the fear of disappointing Him as a motivator in our service unto Him. Let us honor Him. May God be Pleased and Glorified in all we do.
