Do you ever wonder what kinds of things you need to do to please God? I’ve spent a lot of years of my life trying to figure out the formula for making God happy with me. But the good thing is, I’ve got it all figured out now. I’ve also figured out that I wasted a whole lot of time, because I finally came to the understanding that there is NOTHING I can do to make God pleased with me. I know that sounds bad, but its actually really, really good news! John 3:16 says “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.” God gave His Son for us, which was a huge price to pay for a whole bunch of people that didn’t even know Him! But Isaiah 53:10 talks about God sending Jesus to rescue us. It says “But the LORD was pleased to crush Him, putting Him to grief.” The Father was pleased to send Him, and Jesus was pleased to come. Hebrews 12:2 says “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” God loves us so much, and He is completely pleased with us! We don’t ever need to earn His love because it is already perfectly poured out on us. God IS LOVE. Its not just something He does, its who He is. His thoughts towards us are precious and cannot be numbered (psalm 139:17). Sometimes we spend way too much time striving for something we already have. God will never be more pleased with you than He is right now, and you can’t do anything to outrun His love. You just can’t escape! So I’ve learned to stop trying and just rest. I rest in the fact that God adores me. I rest in the fact that He is pleased with me and He’s not going to change His mind. Its hard for us sometimes to understand that God doesn’t need us to do anything for Him. He created us just to enjoy Him! And when you truly learn to enjoy God, all the other stuff just comes naturally. You don’t read your Bible to please God, you read it because its fun. You don’t witness to people to make God happy, you do it because there is so much joy in serving Him. Jesus said His yoke was easy, and it really is! But until you come to the realization that He’s already pleased with you, you can’t really enjoy it. I’ve heard that the word “gospel” which means “good news” can literally be translated “nearly too good to be true news.” And it seems like that! A God that loves us with a relentless love, that pursues us, and then provides for our every need seems too good to be true! But the gospel is really that good, and its really that easy. You can rest because He’s pleased with you!
