How to Please God
Hebrews 11:2,6 Indeed, by faith our ancestors received approval … and without faith it is impossible to please God, for whoever would approach him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
If I asked you, how do you please God, what would your answer be? You get up today, you roll out of bed, and you have your heart set on pleasing God. Great. So what do you do. How exactly do you go about pleasing God?
I’m blessed with three children who love to please their parents. And most of us do want to please people … without being a door mat. I mean, I hope that each day I can bring some joy, some encouragement into other people’s lives. I hope that each day, I do one or two things, that leave the lives of the people with whom I come into contact, better than when I found them.
And, of course, most of us want to please God. But how?
Well He actually tells us exactly how we can please Him, in His Word, the Bible. God doesn’t leave this important thing to chance. So … here it is:
Indeed, by faith our ancestors received approval … and without faith it is impossible to please God, for whoever would approach him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. (Hebrews 11:2,6)
More than anything else – God wants us just to trust Him. Even though we can’t see Him. Even though we can’t touch Him and feel Him the way we can with other people. In fact, when you think about it, God deliberately hides Himself in the spiritual dimension, by putting us in the physical dimension.
But it’s a gap that He bridges twice in two very special ways. Firstly He sends Jesus from the spiritual to the physical, to become one of us and to walk in our midst. Spirit becomes flesh.
And then, He sends the Holy Spirit to dwell in each person who does trust in this Jesus, to dwell in our flesh.
So even though God has deliberately set things up so that our relationship with Him has to be a relationship of faith, a relationship of trust that reaches from the physical into the Spiritual, He makes that easy for us, by bridging the gap, by bringing spiritual and physical together, as one, through Jesus and through His Spirit.
With each of our kids there were ups and downs. Great times … tough times. We were there to look after them, to nurture them, to help them to grow up. And through all that, all we really wanted was for them to trust us – that we were doing our best to bless them.
And if we as imperfect parents are like that, it makes sense that … well, God’s like that too. He just wants us to believe in Him, to trust in Him, through all the ups and downs. That’s it.
That’s God’s Word. Fresh … for you … today.
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