Pleasing God

“You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your strength, and all your mind. And, Love your neighbor as yourself.” Luke 10:27.

I tend to gloss over this verse sometimes. Love God. Check I got that one. Love neighbors. Check I got that one too. But do I really love God and neighbor? What does it mean to love God?

Pleasing God requires love for God, love for others, faith, trust, and obedience all wrapped up in each and everyday of our lives. I truly fall short. Thank you, Jesus, for the cross. God’s greatest commandment to us human beings is to love. That is what is pleasing to Him. It makes perfect sense, because we are called to love as He loves. If we love as He does, unconditionally, then our actions are for the right reasons and not for selfish or manipulative reasons. When we seek God’s purposes, God’s ways, to love like He loves, then our focus is on heavenly things and not worldly things.

This is hard for me. How easily I become distracted by life. When a huge project is due at work and stress is at its highest, love my neighbor is not my priority. My focus is getting the job done, not whether my co-worker is ill or going through a divorce. When the deadline is looming, I do not have time to stop to show compassion or check on my neighbor.

What is the answer? I do not have the answers. I am an imperfect woman who must continually seek God’s grace and mercy to cover me and my shortcomings. However, God’s Word offers guidance.

“For no one can ever be made right in God’s sight by doing what his law commands. For the more we know God’s law, the clearer it becomes that we aren’t obeying it. But now God has shown us a different way of being right in his sight-not by obeying the law but by the way promised in the Scriptures long ago. We are made right in God’s sight when we trust in Jesus Christ to take away our sins. And we all can be saved in this same way, no matter who we are or what we have done. Can we boast, then, that we have done anything to be accepted by God? No, because our acquittal is not based on our good deeds. It is based on our faith. So we are made right with God through faith and not by obeying the law. Well then, if we emphasize faith, does this mean we can forget about the law? Of course not! In fact only when we have faith do we truly fulfill the law.” Romans 3:20 -22; 27-28; 31.

God wants a deep relationship with us. Daily we must seek (1) God, (2) the cross,(3) His love, (4) His wisdom and (5) His purpose for us. We must remember His love for us and His mandate that we love others the way He does. If we are seeking Him, praying to Him, studying His Word, then our focus is on Him and He can change us. Becoming available to Him to allow Him to enter into relationship with us and to change us is the only way to please Him. His changes in us allow us to love Him, love our neighbors, trust and obey Him and have faith.

Prayer: Father, Jesus, and Holy Spirit, I am not capable of pleasing you without your transforming love. Please pursue me and do not leave me where I am. Help me seek you and find you. In your loving hands, please change me so that I may please you by loving you with my whole heart, mind and strength. Please help me love others, trust you, obey you and have abiding faith in you. Amen.

I am participating in Rachel Olsen's devotion carnival tomorrow, March 15, 2010. Click on her name here Rachel Olsen and check it out. Be ready for lots of encouragement from writers across the country on the topic of pleasing God.

Heather S. Deaton