PLEASING GOD

My walk for the last month has been a busy one with lots going on. During that time as I took time out to be with the Lord in His word, I was struck by a number of verses that highlighted the position of pleasing God.  When we get busy it is easy to think about ourselves what we are doing and who is around us at the time.  And this is fine particularly as you walk in the path He has given you to walk in but I got to thinking about who it was I was trying to please?  Was it the people around me, was it the businesses I was dealing with or was it God I was trying to please? Maybe I got it about 50/50 right!

Hebrews 11:5 By faith Enoch was taken away so that he did not see death, “and was not found, because God had taken him”; for before he was taken he had this testimony, that he pleased God.
Hebrews 11:6 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.

These were two verses that started my focus in this area.  Enoch had a testimony that he pleased God. Easily read but it struck me that everyday God can be pleased with us or not pleased with us. He loves us, no question about that, but is He pleased with us?

He goes on in verse 6 to say that without faith it is impossible to please Him. Wow if I walk out my door today without faith in Him, without faith in what He has said over my life happening, without faith in what I know is His nature and who He is then it is impossible to please Him.  When you read this verse there is no other substitute for faith in pleasing Him. You can do 100 other things but you must have faith to please Him.

In this season where there is a lot going on in the world and maybe in your life, faith in Him is vital. It pleases Him and it gives you break through.

Faith means that we believe in Him and what He has given us in His words and in His precepts, His parables.  We walk and do things that are in line with what He has taught us.

1 John 3:22 And whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight. 23 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.

We do the things that are pleasing in His sight. When did we last look at ourselves and what we are doing and ask is this pleasing in God’s sight? I woke up this morning and said to myself lets just tackle this day today and look to walk pleasing in His sight without sin and in the way that lines up with his teaching.  Let me get through one day and then I will tackle tomorrow. I can have faith that when I ask from Him then I will receive it if my heart is set on this type of walk.

I just want to please Him.  Nice and simple.

When you start looking at His word in this area there are so many verses that talk about pleasing God.  It is surprising the number of 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;

Fully pleasing Him.  Not partly pleasing him but fully pleasing Him.  What sort of walk does that require us to walk in?  One thing I have been seeing in this area is that we walk as one in Him.  As I push to get closer and closer I notice that my prayers quite often have Jesus praying through me to the Father.  His words overwrite my words in my prayer time. An amazing feeling.

Yesterday I was praying and I was praying about the exciting time I was in and was going into and Jesus as I said the word exciting just replaced it with the word exhilarating and said to me use this word in your prayer.

So, as I walk at the moment even though it is a battle I know Jesus is right with me ready to pray with me at any time and He wants me to pray whenever it comes to mind.  This increases my faith and I push on continuing to make sure what I am doing each day is what I believe He has given me to do and this is pleasing him.

Never cease in prayer.

1 Corinthians 10:5 But with most of them God was not well pleased, for their bodies were scattered in the wilderness.

6 Now these things became our examples, to the intent that we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted.

What sin is in my life that is keeping me in the wilderness?  This is a season that is a breakthrough season but we need to be out of sin as sin does not please Him and it will affect our level of breakthrough and freedom in our walk.  I repent each day for sins I know about and sins I maybe don’t know about that I have committed.  I do this first thing every morning so I can walk in that day starting clean.  I take communion every morning as His blood cleanses those sins.  I don’t get my walk right everyday but I look each morning to start fresh again and now I am looking each morning to walk that day in a way that pleases Him.  I want to be in the promised land, in breakthrough territory and not in the wilderness as His children were in the verse above.

1 Thessalonians 2:4 But as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, even so we speak, not as pleasing men, but God who tests our hearts.

As we walk, can we reflect the Lord and please men in this way? Can our actions be about our walk in the Lord and not our walk with men?

As I walk in the business world which the Lord has put me in I have to operate in the rules of that world. It is easy to look to please men in this business world but I look to align my heart each morning in Him and what He has for me to do.  Sometimes during the day I have to realign my heart because I have got so busy and been pulled into the business side of things so much that I am walking to please men and not in a way that pleases God. When things get out of line I come back to the words that He has said over me that I will accomplish in this part of my walk and my faith comes to the front of mind no matter the circumstances.

I believe this pleases the Lord as I quite often see supernatural break throughs at these times.  It is a partnership walk where my faith pleases Him and He blows upon things as they occur.

2 Peter 1:17 For He received from God the Father honour 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 word of the Father over Jesus is so powerful. The Father was so pleased in the Son. He can be so pleased in us which is a position we should look to push towards.

I finish with a quote I found in my notes.  I am not sure where it came from but I love what it says. It is a summary of our sanctification walk. Let Him be pleased in us.

The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit say

“I have been and seen and cleaned and I am pleased with what is left.”