Pleasing the Lord
As Christians, most of us are well aware of God’s goodness in our lives. We know from experience that He is a loving, merciful, and faithful Father. In fact, He loved us so much that He didn’t even withhold His precious Son from us, but willingly gave Him to gain us:
“He who did not withhold or spare [even] His own Son but gave Him up for us all, will He not also with Him freely and graciously give us all [other] things?” ~ Romans 8:32 (AMP)
The Lord has freely and graciously given us all the good things we need! Most of us are familiar with scriptures that speak of all the wonderful blessings He has bestowed upon us.
We know He has forgiven us and cleansed us of all our sins:
He forgives all my sins… ~ Psalm 103:3 (NLT)
We know He is our Healer:
By his wounds you are healed. ~ 1 Peter 2:24 (NLT)
We know that He is our Provider:
And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus. ~ Philippians 4:19 (NIV)
And we know that He has promised to give us the desires of our hearts:
Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart. ~ Psalm 37:4 (NIV)
But have you ever thought about giving Him the desires of His heart? Have you thought about asking Him how you can please Him more? How you can serve Him better? How you can bring more honor to Him?
When we begin focusing on living to please the Lord, life will become far more enjoyable. We will become less “me-and-mine” centered and become more aware of blessing and gratifying the One Who has given us all things.
In Colossians 1:10 (AMP) the Apostle Paul prays, “That you may walk (live and conduct yourselves) in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to Him and desiring to please Him in all things…”
This should be the constant prayer of our hearts.
We can “set our affections” on Him by focusing on spending time in His Word and learning what pleases Him. When we come into His presence on a continual basis, we grow closer to Him and begin to understand His loving and giving heart. The closer we are to Him, the more we become like Him, and the better we can please Him.
Pleasing the Lord – submitting to His will, following His plan for our lives, obeying in the little things each day – should be the greatest priority of our lives. He gave His all for us. We should do no less.
Do you know the things that please the Lord? I encourage you to join me over at my blog, Flourish, as I share my series, Living to Please Him.