Pleasing God

I can remember talking to my mother around Christmas or Mother’s Day, trying to get her to tell me what she wanted as a gift on these occasions. She would always smile and tell me that all she wanted was for me to be everything God wanted me to be. I never understood why she would say something like that until I had kids of my own.

All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ. Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure. So we praise God for the glorious grace he has poured out on us who belong to his dear Son.Ephesians 1:3-5 (NLT)

The book of Ephesians is filled with teachings concerning the Christian life and the worship of a holy and merciful God. As was his custom, Paul is writing to this church to encourage them and remind them of the miraculous work of Jesus. This opening passage is filled with praise for a God who would choose to work in and through the lives of sinful man.

Paul opens this passage with a word of encouragement for the heart of all believers. He tells us that we have been blessed with spiritual blessings. Most Christians probably understand that concept – God has given us the Holy Spirit as our guide and teacher. What we sometimes fail to get our hearts and minds around is the rest of the story. We have been blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms. Think about it! There is no blessing available to the angels in heaven or to Christ, at the right hand of God, which is not available to us! We are magnificently and totally blessed as children of God.

Amazingly, it was God’s choice to make these blessings available to us. We did nothing to deserve them – He wanted to give them to us. Not only that, He decided to do this marvelous work long before we, or the world we live in, even existed. It has always been part of His plan to create man and give him the opportunity to become joint heirs with Jesus Christ, His Son. He included in the grand plan for the universe the opportunity for sinful man to be made righteous in His sight through the blood of His Son. Jesus died that we might be able to receive these blessings.

Why would an all knowing, all-powerful, ever present God choose to create a people who continually rebel against everything He stands for? Better yet, why would that same God choose to sacrifice His only Son as a way for these men to become part of His family? The answer is in the last six words of this passage – “And this gave him great pleasure.” It brings joy to the heart of God to see His creation acknowledge the Creator.

As Christians, we should strive with every fiber of our being to bring honor and glory to the Father. This scripture tells us that He receives great pleasure when people accept His invitation to become part of His family. If we want to please God, we will be continually about reaching one more for Jesus.

We serve an awesome God!!!!!

But all who listen to me will live in peace,
untroubled by fear of harm.”Proverbs 1:33