Knowing you are pleasing to God is one thing; pleasing Him is quite another. There’s this little matter of our behavior. I will always love our son, Chandler; I may not always like what he is doing. It’s all about being and doing.

Knowing we are pleasing to God is something that takes place at the core of one’s being. God loves who we are. He looks at us and is pleased with what He made. But knowing we are pleasing to God is not a free hall pass from responsibility. It does not sanction bad behavior.

We can be pleasing to God and still do things that are not pleasing to Him. That’s because being pleasing to God has to do with who we are, not what we do. One is being; the other is doing.

Ideally, one should lead to the other. Realizing we are pleasing to God should make us want to please Him in everything. And that’s where we want to end up with these thoughts today. We want to find out what pleases God and do it. We want to not be just hearers of the word but doers of it also.

After all, it’s only right that we should want to please Him when we realize that we already do, without doing anything.

Knowing you are pleasing to God to start with should make it easier to change. You operate out of love and gratitude, not out of trying to gain love and acceptance. Does that help?

by John Fischer
used by permission

FURTHER READING

The Kind of Faith that Pleases God

Expect God’s Favor

Faith Pleases God

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