Pleasing God
It can be healthy to please another when it isn’t rooted in manipulating or meriting anything. A truly healthy desire to please another is rooted in loving and respecting them.
Colossians 1:9 For this reason, we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; 10 that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; 11 strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy; 12 giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light. 13 He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, 14 in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.
One key characteristic of a love that respects is the fruit of a desire to please. When someone resists the idea of pleasing someone who rightfully deserves it, we call that rebellion.
1Thessalonians 4:1 Finally then, brethren, we urge and exhort in the Lord Jesus that you should abound more and more, just as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God;
Jesus modeled the importance of living to please God by being in total surrender to Him and making the following declaration,
John 8:29 And He who sent Me is with Me. The Father has not left Me alone, for I always do those things that please Him.”
Jesus always did what pleased the Father! That was the expression of His love and respect for the Father. Love and respect work hand in hand.
There’s something powerful about knowing that the one you love and respect is pleased with you. When someone from a place of glory declares they are pleased with you, it is called being given honor and glory.
2 Peter 1:17 For He received from God the Father honor and glory when such a voice came to Him from the Excellent Glory: “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”
This declaration came after Jesus submitted Himself to the baptism of John. John’s baptism of repentance was controversial to many in the culture of the time but was ordained by God, and when Jesus submitted to it, even though he had not sinned, He was acknowledging the wisdom, authority, and will of God for it to exist and be submitted to in that time and context. The Father made sure everyone knew of His being well pleased by the Son in this act of obedience. The knowledge of the Father’s pleasure gave Jesus the strength to endure the wilderness temptation. The joy of the Lord is a powerful thing.
Nehemiah 8:10 Then he said to them, “Go your way, eat the fat, drink the sweet, and send portions to those for whom nothing is prepared; for this day is holy to our Lord. Do not sorrow, for the joy of the LORD is your strength.”
Israel had just found the books of the law again and discovered the truth regarding their context. It brought grief upon them to discover they had displeased God. But they were being called to return to Him and told that in being shown the way, they should take heart in His joy in their submission to the truth. Notice it says the joy of the Lord, not my joy. His joy is my strength. Knowing He is pleased is powerful fuel for endurance and perseverance in life. If it can empower those who were under the law, imagine what it can do for you and me now that we are under the New Covenant of Grace.
His will for you and me is for us to believe in the One He has sent! Believing and taking Him at His word brings Him great pleasure. Our trust in His goodness empowers us to follow His will even in times of uncertainty in the natural. Desiring to please Him by how we walk in this life is not bondage. It is empowerment! After all, we have the DNA of the One who declared, “I always do those things that please Him.”
