Because We Want To Please Him
When it comes down to it, we want to please our God, right? We just want to love Him, for He first loved us and continues to pour–lavish grace and love over us. When the Spirit of God was given to us He gave us a love for God, a love that desires to please Him. If you consider yourself a Christian and yet have no desire to please your Savior and God, then you should examine your heart and faith.
As stated above, a desire to please your heavenly Father comes from the Spirit of Adoption who has come to abide in us. That means that a desire to please the Father is a witness that you belong to Him. In other words, it is proof that you are His beloved child.
The Scripture says that when we become children of God we receive the Spirit of Adoption–His Spirit, within us crying Abba Father. Do you find yourself calling on Him with an affectionate love? “Abba Father” kind of affection desires to please Him. I know, I know we all fail miserably in living in a manner that pleases Him, but remember: It is not about perfection but direction. Some days my desire is all about pleasing me. How pathetic is that? Please keep your comments to yourself. But when I focus on pleasing Him, I find myself growing in the light–His light.
Since I’m the one who opened the ugly door, I’ll say it. When we are living to please ourselves, we are nurturing selfishness, and selfishness feeds pride. Rather than walking in the light, we are walking outside of the light and the darkness. Besides, I am too boring to have it all about me. And honestly, so are you. God, on the other hand, is not boring. BAM! He is God!
Now back to the subject of this post.
I WANT TO desire to please Him. As the Apostle wrote, “I aim to please Him.” I miss the mark but I am aiming in that direction. My Savior is my 24/7 propitiation for my sins, so I am not worried that I miss the mark. Of course I always miss the mark. That is why we live in the Gospel 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. It is still my goal each day to please Him, that doesn’t change.
I absolutely LOVE and ENJOY time with my grandchildren. I LOVE IT when they ask me things and want to spend time with me. Is our heavenly Father less than we are towards His children? His love exceeds our human love. Therefore, let’s seek time with Him because it pleases Him. He enjoys spending time in fellowship with us.
Thomas Brooks writes,
Because the servant’s redeeming of time for private prayer from his sleep, his meals, his recreations, &c., cannot but be infinitely pleasing to God; and that which will afford him most comfort when he comes to die. The more any poor heart acts contrary to flesh and blood, the more he pleases God; the more any poor heart denies himself, the more he pleases God; the more any poor heart acts against the stream of sinful examples, the more he pleases God; the more difficulties and discouragements a poor heart meets with in the discharge of his duty, the more love he shews to God; and the more love a poor heart shews to God, the more he pleases God: Jeremiah. 2:2, 3, ‘Go and cry in the ears of Jerusalem, saying, Thus saith the Lord, I remember thee, the kindness of thy youth, the love of thine espousals, when thou wentest after me in the wilderness, in a land that was not sown. Israel was holiness unto the Lord, and the first-fruits of his increase: all that devour him shall offend; evil shall come upon them, saith the Lord.’
God was very highly pleased and greatly delighted with the singular love and choice affections of his people towards him, when they followed after him, and kept close to him, in that tedious and uncouth passage through the waste, howling wilderness. How all these things do comport with that poor pious servant that redeems time for private prayer upon the hardest terms imaginable, I shall leave the ingenuous reader to judge. And certainly, upon a dying bed, no tongue can express, nor heart conceive but he that feels it, the unspeakable comfort that closet-duties will afford to him that hath been exercised in them, upon those hard terms that are under present consideration.
Yes, I also love spending time with my own children. It’s just that the grandchildren are just so dog-gone fun and adorable.
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Brooks, T. (1866). The Complete Works of Thomas Brooks. (A. B. Grosart, Ed.) (Vol. 2, pp. 218–219). Edinburgh; London; Dublin: James Nichol; James Nisbet and Co.; G. Herbert.