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Day after day, week after week, month after month, and year after year God’s people continue on faithfully serving God the Father and Jesus Christ His only begotten Son. We are devoted and willingly driven with great purpose to obey God’s laws and the 10 Commandments, led by His Spirit from within, to read the Holy Bible in order to listen to God and give Him our thoughts in prayer morning, noon, and night, if we are like Daniel. Praying without ceasing develops our personal relationship and God delights in this as we tell Him everything as each situation pops up wherever we are (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18). It took me quite some time to change from wanting to tell my closest physical friend the best and worst about my day as that is what I was used to doing in the world. This has now changed by genuinely desiring to include God first before anyone else. You may say He sees all and knows all anyway, so why bother? This is true, however it greatly pleases and matters to our Heavenly Father that we want to tell Him with heartfelt words what happens each day just like our parents would like to know when we were youngsters after coming home from school — these are special bonding moments as we go through physical things on earth while we emotionally and cognitively connect to the spiritual and unseen supernatural world seeking out our Creator. Do not become disheartened if this is new to you as this takes time, effort and practice until it becomes natural or second nature — you will get there in time.
If you are like me you may have asked can we truly please our Heavenly Father? Some would say yes, some no, whilst others would guess maybe...or they just don’t know. Let us refer to Colossians 3:20 where we are told to firstly obey our parents in all things and that this is very pleasing to God. This makes sense as our physical parents have been given to us by God to be our caretakers and work in conjunction with our Heavenly Father to instruct us in God’s ways. As we grow and mature we are told in Ephesians 5:10 to test and prove what pleases God. Children maturing into adulthood should read and become familiar with the Proverbs written by King Solomon — the first few of which are designed specifically for the youth and provide “guidance for the young” as they learn about life. It would be prudent and incredibly beneficial to encourage your child to read a scripture with you together each day as there are 31 Proverbs; repeating this pattern each month consolidates and helps our memory with recall. Imagine the bonding time and the benefit of sharing in God’s knowledge and wisdom! As God says in Proverbs 22:6 “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it”.
Following on from the book of Proverbs, Scripture in Colossians 1:9-10, inspired by God and written by the apostle Paul spells it out clearly for us “For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God”. Paul was writing to the Colossians all those years ago, but the application is still there for all of us today, and so we can read this scripture confidently knowing that we are indeed included by extension as we are God’s people. Pleasing God is therefore growing in fruitful works and doing our best to follow His will in all things. Giving of our time unselfishly in praying for others like Paul mentions is beautiful in God’s eyes. He also states that we should be filled with the knowledge of God’s will. Paul reveals that we can fully please God by actively engaging to do all of these things as it takes not just one thing such as believing in God like many think, but to do something about it, taking action by putting in the time and effort in His Word and with Him in prayer. This begins our wonderful journey as the “apple” of His eye.
There are several places in the Bible where scripture reveals that we are the apple of God’s eye and some of these are found in Deuteronomy 32:10, Lamentations 2:18, Zechariah 2:8, and Psalm 17:8. If you read these you will see King David’s plea to God for keeping him as the apple of His eye. God also refers to His commandments and law in Proverbs 7:2 “Keep my commandments, and live; and my law as the apple of thine eye" indicating that we should have these firmly embedded in our hearts and minds as we lovingly meditate upon them all the days of our lives because they are the apple of our eye. Then we see that Hebrews 11:6 says it is impossible to please God without faith so it would seem that faith is a very good place to start and so faith building moments are made as we walk in our journey with God. He will bless our efforts by giving us the gift of faith and once you have this your foundation is strong. We are told that God takes pleasure in those who fear Him from scripture in Psalm 147:11. Fear means healthy respect and to regard God with awe in order to worship Him appropriately as He deserves great glory and thankfulness on our part for being perfect in every way — indeed everything God does is perfect and there is nothing, not even one thing that is not of perfection. It is good for us to know that God is more powerful than anyone or anything. He owns this vast and limitless universe as He created it (Revelation 4:11). This deep respect should motivate us to avoid sin and live a righteous life in faithful and humble service which pleases Him.
The perfect example set for us in pleasing God the Father is found through reading about the life of Jesus Christ in the Bible. In Matthew 3:16-17 we see what transpired when John the Baptist, cousin of Jesus, baptised Jesus Christ “When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him. And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Mark 1:11, Luke 3:22). Notice that God does not say He is proud or has fatherly pride. Instead the term “well pleased” is used. God has no pride within Him and we would do well to remove all pride from ourselves to be like God and Christ. When we are pleased or well pleased with our children we should say so instead of using the word “pride” as this word is associated with the devil. Many seem to have forgotten this or misuse the word. Nowadays there is a group of people declaring their pride in themselves and they are an abomination to God (Leviticus 18:22) because their behaviour is perverted and sinful. Christians must indeed separate themselves from any pride as this is fleshly, carnal and in this state we cannot please God (Romans 8:6-8).
Jesus said in John 8:29 that He always did the things which please His Father. How about you and me — do we always do the things which please our Father? Let us make a concerted effort to do so as spoken about in 1 Thessalonians 4:1 “Finally then, brethren, we request and exhort you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us instruction as to how you ought to walk and please God (just as you actually do walk), that you excel still more”. We can always improve — this is encouraging and should be motivating. May God abundantly bless our efforts and may I remind you all of the following words written many years ago for our benefit by the hand of King David under inspiration from God in Psalm 36:1-12 which sums up our sickly and perverted world accurately in these end times...
There is no fear of God before his eyes.
For he flatters himself in his own eyes,
When he finds out his iniquity and when he hates.
The words of his mouth are wickedness and deceit;
He has ceased to be wise and to do good.
He devises wickedness on his bed;
He sets himself in a way that is not good;
He does not abhor evil.
Your mercy, O Lord, is in the heavens;
Your faithfulness reaches to the clouds.
Your righteousness is like the great mountains;
Your judgments are a great deep;
O Lord, You preserve man and beast.
How precious is Your lovingkindness, O God!
Therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of Your wings.
They are abundantly satisfied with the fullness of Your house,
And You give them drink from the river of Your pleasures.
For with You is the fountain of life;
In Your light we see light.
Oh, continue Your lovingkindness to those who know You,
And Your righteousness to the upright in heart.
Let not the foot of pride come against me,
And let not the hand of the wicked drive me away.
There the workers of iniquity have fallen;
They have been cast down and are not able to rise”.