Do you regret something bad that you did or said recently? What would even make your list of “bad things?”
I don’t suppose our lists look the same – everyone holds themselves to different standards. There are obvious things like murder and adultery that we know are definitely wrong, but what about the convictions we must decide on for ourselves?
- Will I use vulgarities?
- What’s my view on sex before marriage?
- What kind of spouse will I be?
- What’s my most important goal in life?
But we don’t really talk about such things anymore. In a world where anything goes, many of us aren’t absolutely sure about a lot of things or our decisions.
So we just go with the flow, we just let it be – not realising how dangerous that sort of spontaneity can be. But it costs to be careless about the way we handle our self, relationships, and money.
And the most important, most costly decision we’ll make is in how we relate with God.
Our view of who God is and who we are to Him must dictate all of life’s decisions.
The most important thing we can do for ourselves is to align our life and will to His (Romans 12:2).
- If you’ve ever asked who the “real you” is – your Creator God has the answer (Psalm 139)
- If you feel like you just don’t know what to do anymore – your Creator God has the answer (Psalm 86:11)
- If you don’t know how to surrender your life to God – your Creator God has the answer (Matt 16:24-25)
When our desire is to be right with God, we are freed to know and follow Him.
“So we make it our goal to please him… For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.” (2 Corinthians 5:9-10)
Do you know what we’re born for? So many spend their lives chasing the wind. We make it our whole life’s goal to bring God pleasure.
Pleasing God is not the same as pleasing a superior at work, or blind subservience to a narcissistic control-freak.
It is a winning strategy in the war against a real enemy who schemes against us.
Pleasing God delivers clarity to the decisions we make. The more we know and spend time with God and His Word, we more we will find out what pleases Him. After all, when we draw near to God, He will draw near to us (James 4:8).
Are you pleasing Him? It was said to the believers in Rome that those “in the flesh cannot please God” (Romans 8:8). The goal of pleasing God brings to light our sinful selves and all the ways we are naturally at odds with Him.
“When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said ‘Repent,’ he intended that the entire life of believers should be repentance.” (Martin Luther)
When was the last time we repented of doing something that wouldn’t please God?
A life of repentance sounds like a hard and tedious one. But it’s a blessed life: Repentance takes the burden of sin off us (1 John 1:9) – a gift of grace that we might live free.
The things that please God are worth contending for.
We can either gratify the desires of our flesh and live in careless disregard of who God is – or live in His forgiveness and love.
“To the person who pleases him, God gives wisdom, knowledge and happiness…” (Ecclesiastes 2:26a)
God desires to lavish wisdom, knowledge, peace, love, joy, and every other good thing upon us.
As our Father, He does not want to withhold any good thing from us. If we align our will with His and desire to please God, our choices will reap rewards for our eternal souls.
We are accountable for every choices we make. At the end, we have to give an answer for the kind of life we lived and all the things we did.
Thank God for His mercy – that He would help us today by guiding us (John 16:13).
