How do I please God?

[dseusy]

How do we please a holy, righteous, omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, and just God?

[TK]

I sense a trick question.

TK

[dseusy]

Ha ha... you have a keen awareness. Not so much a trick as an opportunity to discuss the basis of God's pleasure in us. What are your thoughts?

[RICHinCHRIST]

How do we please a holy, righteous, omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, and just God?

Second verse that came to mind:



Faith, I believe, is the best means by which we please God. It proves to God that we trust His promises. Also, faith assumes one has forsaken all of their own self-righteousness, and clings to the cross of Christ for full atonement and mercy ("God be merciful to me a sinner!"). One who has faith in God no longer has faith or trust in their own self-righteousness.

First verse that came to mind:


I think a love relationship, based on faith, is extremely pleasing to God. Jesus further manifested that fact when He said He'd no longer call us servants but friends if we do whatever He commands us (John 15:14-15).

These may seem like simple and obvious answers, but I think that proves that God has made it quite simple to please Him. He has not made it a burdensome pursuit to please Him.

These verses also came to mind:

Paul's prayer for the Colossians is that they would "fully please Him". He then expounds on how that is to be accomplished:

1) By knowing God's will through spiritual understanding
2) Using that knowledge in order to obey God ("walk worthy of the Lord")
3) To be fruitful in good works (which God predestined, by the way...Eph. 2:10)
4) To increase in the knowledge of God (epignosis)
5) To be strengthened by the Holy Spirit
6) To endure and persevere in the Christian life with joy (by the power of the Holy Spirit)
7) To have thankful hearts full of gratitude that we have been transferred from the kingdom of Satan into the kingdom of Christ!

[dseusy]

RICHinCHRIST,

I really appreciate the verses you brought up. There is so much spiritual depth in these and I think the simplicity of the Gospel dwells in John 15 for those with ears to hear. We can do nothing apart from Him. We love because He first loved us. His Spirit bears fruit in our lives... in our jars of clay. We cannot love without Him. He is love. We are not love. We get love from Him. I don't think He gives it to us for us to disperse, I think He lives in us and causes it to disperse from Himself. Perhaps the way the moon shines... if the sun (SON) went dark, the moon would not shine. When the moon is in the right spot (In Him) it reflects the sun's (SON's) glory. When we believe God expects us to produce light (love) we see in part. When we believe that God loves us, and wants to dwell in us and produce light (love), we see a bigger part. We began with the Spirit, let us continue in Him and walk this worthy walk by the worth He provides and produce the good works His Spirit produces, and increase in the knowledge He grants, and be strengthened through a gifted faith that acknowledges our brokenness and great need of His strength in us (when I am weak, I am strong), and persevere by His power, and be thankful to God for qualifying us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light.

What kind of works are going to make it through the fire?

What kind of work truly pleases God?

"For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each man's work will become evident; for the day will show it because it is to be revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of each man's work. If any man's work which he has built on it remains, he will receive a reward. If any man's work is burned up, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire. Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?" 1 Corinthians 3:11-16

Our foundation is Christ. What materials are we using to build? What kind of work can withstand a fire of justice, or a righteous fire which reveals the quality of our work? What kind of love can pass through the flames? Can the love you show your family, or roommate, or enemy, when no one else is around, pass through the flames? Can the motives which your church service rests on be revealed as that which can remain? When our motives are revealed, will our work be found pleasing in God's eyes?

Does anyone find it interesting that a man's work can be burned up but he will be saved? Does walking a narrow path look more like a tight-rope act or a cross?

[Homer]

dseusy,

You wrote:

Our foundation is Christ. What materials are we using to build? What kind of work can withstand a fire of justice, or a righteous fire which reveals the quality of our work? ............
Does anyone find it interesting that a man's work can be burned up but he will be saved?

I think if you carefully look at the context regarding our work being burned up you will find that Paul was writing about the converts we might make. Do we make true disciples or false ones? The metaphors of a field and a building represent the church.

[dseusy]

Homer,

I looked more carefully and you are right about the context. Thanks for the sharpening.