Am I pleasing to the Lord?
Are the things which I do pleasing to Him?
When I get up in the morning, do I contemplate what I may do this day that is pleasing to God? And if I do take pleasing God into my consideration; what is it that I imagine I can do to be pleasing in His sight?
I cannot help but think that most of us, even when we do take the pleasing of God into consideration, probably approach this with the wrong kinds of effort.
For one thing, our effort is not what mainly is pleasing to God, but our thinking is usually along the lines of putting forth great efforts in one way or another in order to be pleasing to the Lord.
Well, someone said, “if it is not our efforts that God wants in order to please Him then what in the world does He want.”
Our “efforts” are not necessarily wrong but must be in the right direction. In other words it is not the “strength of our trying” that is pleasing to God, but the direction of those efforts.
Most of us I believe are trying to please God by the doing of things, when in actuality the pleasing of our Heavenly Father comes from our Faith. And not just any faith but Faith in His Son, “Jesus Christ.”
In John 6:27, Jesus said, “Labour not for the meat which perishes, but for that meat which endures unto Everlasting Life, which the Son of Man shall give unto you: for Him has God the Father sealed.
28. Then said they unto Him, What shall we do, that we might work the works of God?
29. Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the Work of God, that you believe on Him Whom He has sent.
If this is not enough to convince us, let us look at a verse in 1 John.
1 John 3:23, says, “And this is His Commandment, that we should believe on the Name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as He gave us Commandment.”
Without first having Faith in Christ, we will not be competent at loving one another, for love is of God, and we cannot love with our own strength and abilities; we can only love as the Holy Spirit guides our heart into love. And the Holy Spirit is hindered from this guidance when we do not have an active Faith in Christ.
Let me put it this way: if our faith is directed at our own abilities or our capacities or for that matter directed at any thing which is not Christ and Him Crucified, then that thing which we are having faith in will not be able to bring forth love.
So, if you want to love your neighbor, it starts with Faith in Christ and it can only be done by first having Faith in Christ.
This is what I meant by the direction of our efforts!
If our efforts are not directed at a continually updated Faith in Christ (examine yourselves to see whether you be in the Faith), then we will find it impossible to be pleasing to God.
Faith in Christ, pleases God. Anything else pleases self.
Let us add this thought, “if we are keeping our Faith continually in Christ, then the other efforts which we go about, in our trying to be pleasing to God, are done as unto the Lord and not unto ourselves or as unto men.
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