Pleasing the Lord

Thursday - March 31st

Scripture to Read Today: Ephesians 5:1-17

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Carefully determine what pleases the Lord.

Ephesians 5:10 NLT

Years ago, I read the story of a temple in Southeast Asia that serves a small religious sect. The temple has a thousand steps that lead up to the central platform and altar. During the annual holy days of the sect, the priests shatter glass and spread it all over the steps. Worshippers climb the steps on their hands and knees with nothing covering them. Their religious leaders teach them that those who endure all the cuts, bleeding, and pain and climb to the top will be accepted by the gods. They will achieve forgiveness and eternal life.

Thankfully, the New Testament teaches us that Jesus accomplished on the cross all that is required for us to be accepted by God. We do not have to go out of our way to endure pain and hardship to appease God. Nothing we could do could ever measure up to Who God is. Jesus did all that was needed for us.

Once we come to faith in Christ and what He accomplished to appease God for us, we begin to trust and obey Him. Then, as we trust and obey Him, we please Him. Nothing can ever change our eternal relationship with God - He has been appeased in Christ. Pleasing God is about our walk with Him. We have to understand what He expects of us as His children. We look for ways to obey Him and His Word. We seek to please Him rather than appease Him.

When we please God with the choices and decisions we make, we experience deep satisfaction. Conversely, when we fail to please God in our choices and decisions, we feel uneasy and lack any joy or peace. God wired us for and wants us to have joy and lasting satisfaction in our walk with Him. Unfortunately, many of us lack that peace and deep satisfaction because we fail to trust and obey our God - we fail to prioritize pleasing Him.

Paul told the believers in Ephesus to "Carefully determine what pleases the Lord" (Ephesians 5:10 NLT). Pleasing God with our lives requires diligence and discernment. We must be willing to do what God expects from us, but we must also be discerning. Not every choice or behavior of life is supported by or warned against in the Bible. Not everything about the Christian life is, "Thus says the Lord." To align with our God and please Him requires godly and wise discernment.

Take the words of the Apostle Paul seriously; "Carefully determine what pleases the Lord." Thank God that you do not have to attempt to appease the Lord - since you cannot anyway. Jesus did.

Carefully look for ways to please the Lord based on what He has done for you out of love through Christ!