How you can be pleasing to God even in the most difficult of times. part 1

Within the heart of every believer is the desire to hear the words, “well done my good and faithful servant.” As much as we desire to be pleasing to God, we often find the task to be tougher than we first thought. So this begs the question, if we desire to please God why is it so hard to live out? One of the reasons for our difficulty in living out the God pleasing life is that we are wrestling against three forces that are actively at work to stop us. Those three forces are the Devil, the World and our flesh (our natural propensity to desire sinful pleasures). We are cautioned by the writers of the Bible to be circumspect in regards to these malevolent forces.

 

• 1 Peter 5:8 (NASB95) Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.

•  1 John 2:15 (NASB95) Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

•  Romans 8:6-8 (NASB95) For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, 7 because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so, 8 and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

 

These three forces are one reason that the life directed at pleasing God is difficult, but what is the other reason? The other reason has to do with the purpose of God. That may sound strange especially in a day when people generally think that God’s purpose in life is to make Christians healthy and wealthy. Today most think that God’s business is to make sure we are happy and that life brings as little adversity as possible. Such a view is not wise mainly because it is not Biblical and therefore not true. You see, when we are born of God, when we become Christians, we become new creatures. Our hearts begin to cry out, “Abba (daddy), Father” where before there was only unbelief. Even so our birth into the family of God is only the beginning. Just like a newborn babe we have quite a bit of growing up to do. As parents we have an idea of what kind of people we want our children to grow up to be. We want our children to be fine upstanding citizens, or something like that. God has much the same goal with His children. God however does not have some vague concept that He wants His children to live up to, but He has a definite pattern. The pattern is His Son Jesus Christ. God is actively parenting us, if you will, to mold us into the image of His Son.

•  Romans 8:28-29 (NASB95) And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. 29 For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren;

 Just like most areas of life, the way to judge what one has learned is through testing. People can talk a bold talk, about how good they are, how loving, merciful, or honest they are but the proof is always in the pudding. Talk is cheap, how do you respond under trials and tribulations; how do you respond under pressure? When we fail to measure up to our ideals under pressure we learn what we are truly like and what needs to improve. Life is a process of trails brought to us for the purpose of testing our faith, of exposing areas that need improvement. The standard of behavior is high and almost always goes against what comes “naturally” to us.

 

• Matthew 5:43-45 (NASB95) “You have heard that it was said, ‘YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR and hate your enemy.’ 44 “But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.

 As we face each trial our faith stretches so that as time goes by we are able to face most situations as Christ would have.

 

Let’s sum up what we have learned so far, why is life so hard for those of us who want nothing else other than to please God? First, there are three forces actively at work to get us to stumble and Secondly, God is at work in us to expose our shortcomings and to get us to grow up into the stature of His Son. As we grow and as our faith stretches we are more able to live like we should and we will hear more often, “Well done, my good and faithful servant.” As difficult as living like Jesus is, it does not diminish our desire to be pleasing to God.

 

The next few blogs will endeavor to give us some tips on how to face tough times without losing our bearings. We will learn how to face the most difficult of situations in such a way that they actually serve to uplift us instead of tear us down. After the trial we will see them as stepping stone to our goal of being pleasing to God. For now just know you are not alone in your heart’s desire to be pleasing to God and you are definitely not alone when you realize the difficulty of such a task.