February 14, 2023, Reflection on “Pleasing God!”

May we shout for joy over your salvation, and in the name of our God, set up our banners! May the Lord fulfill all your petitions! Now I know that the Lord saves His anointed; He will answer him from His holy heaven with the saving might of His right hand. Psalm 20:5-6.

          Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law, he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers. Psalm 1:1-3.

         As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God? Psalm 42:1-2.

      “But blessed are those who trust in the Lord and have made the Lord their hope and confidence. They are like trees planted along a riverbank, with roots that reach deep into the water, or worried by long months of drought. Their leaves stay green, and they never stop producing fruit.” Jeremiah 17:7-8.

         Pleasing God is being rooted in the living Water. Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving. Colossians 2:6-7.

         The Trinity, God the Father, Jesus the Son, and the Holy Spirit are like one.

         So, Jesus said to them, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He, and that I do nothing on my own authority, but speak just as the Father taught me. And He who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to Him.” John 8:28-29. Righteous living is pleasing to God. When we reflect the life and selfless love of Jesus, we are pleasing to God.

         The essence of God is Love in all He creates—the universe, the stars, living creatures of land, sea, and land, and man and woman in His Image. So, God created man in his own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female, He created them. And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” Genesis 1:27-28.

         The world says, love yourselves, and God’s Command says, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” 

         This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Matthew 22:37-39. Obedience is pleasing to God. Believing and Trusting God leads to Obedience. Meditating on God’s Word is the beginning of a new adventure in living. In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Though you have not seen Him, you love Him. Though you do not now see Him, you believe in Him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls. I Peter 1:6-9.

         Each breath we take, each bite of bread, each drink of water we drink is a gift of God through His pleasure in providing for us. His Will and Purpose for our lives is set before the foundation of the world. Even as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him. In love, He predestined us for adoption to Himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of His will, to the praise of His glorious grace, with which He has blessed us in the Beloved. Ephesians 1:4-6.

         The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge. There is no speech, nor are there words whose voice is not heard. Psalm 19:1-3.

         This Psalm ends with these words of the desire to be pleasing to God the Father: Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer. Psalm 19:14.

         Because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. Romans 10:9-10.

          Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” John 14:6.

         For by grace, you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. Ephesians 2:8-9.

         He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? Micah 6:8.

         ‘Way-maker, miracle worker, promise keeper, Light in the darkness, My God, that is Who You are!’ (Leeland)

         Enoch made the decision to follow God. By faith, Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death, and he was not found, because God had taken him. Now, before he was taken, he was commended as having pleased God. Hebrews 11:5. The question is, Am I walking with God in my life?