What Pleases the Lord? (Part 1)

“and find out what pleases the Lord.” Ephesians 5:10

When I came upon this short verse in Ephesians chapter 5 it’s as if the rest of the chapter seemed to disappear. "Find out what pleases the Lord." The things that please the Lord are like a treasure hunt. These things need to be searched out, sought after, and pursued. These are hidden things that take a lifetime of curiosity to unveil. I am completely convinced however, that when we set our minds to pleasing the Lord, by seeking first His kingdom and righteousness, then He will keep His word and “all these things will be given to you as well.” (Matthew 6:33) When our minds are focused on pleasing the Lord all of our needs will be taken care of. I’m not saying we will get everything we want, but the Lord will certainly give us everything we need when we need it. I invite you to join me on a treasure hunt as we search scripture to discover what pleases the Lord.

 

Faith

“And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.” Hebrews 11:6

Hebrews tells us that it is not even possible to please the Lord without faith. Faith by definition means to have confidence or trust in the Lord, to believe with all our heart, soul, mind and strength. So, when we lack the confidence, trust and belief with our innermost being, and our faith is non-existent, then pleasing the Lord is absolutely out of the realm of possibility. Faith is the foundation by which everything else in our relationship with Christ can stand. If we have not laid the foundation of a firm and established faith, then we can be assured everything else we try to build in the kingdom will also be weak and unreliable. Faith is the starting point for the Lord to do the unimaginable. I love that the Lord does not expect our faith to be huge. Scripture tells us that if we have faith as small as a mustard seed we can move mountains. (Matthew 17:20). Nothing is impossible to those who have just the smallest amount of faith in their Heavenly Father. What confidence that gives us as believers! 

Fearing the Lord

“the Lord delights in those who fear him, who put their hope in his unfailing love.” Psalm 147:11

The Lord delights, He takes joy in, it makes His heart happy to see those who stand in awe of Him. That word fear doesn’t mean to be scared of God, but rather to be awe struck, to be so overwhelmed by Him that you are without words to describe how wondrous and glorious He truly is. Do we walk in such a way that our reaction to God being God is nothing short of being totally and completely mesmerized? Are we so wrapped up in His breathtaking nature that we can do nothing more than sit in reverent silence because there are no words to describe Him?  Are we truly fearing the Lord? I don’t know about you, but I fall short on this front for sure! I take God for granted in so many ways and forget to just sit back and stand in awe of Him. This is such a challenge to my spirit right now. I can definitely spend more time admiring the God who created the heavens and the earth, who puts each breath in my lungs and life in my bones. Wow! The Lord delights in me when I take the time to admire Him.

Trust

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.” Proverbs 3:5-6

Much like faith, trust means to have confidence in, and to rely on. We are to have confidence, without hesitation or hindrance in our Heavenly Father with everything that is within us. Once we have placed our uninhibited trust in the Lord then, and only then can we count on our paths being made straight. I know for me, I often want the Lord to make my path straight before I commit to trusting in Him wholeheartedly. It is not pleasing to the Lord when we don’t completely put our trust in Him and His ways. In fact, it breaks His heart because He can see our past, present and future. He knows our beginning and our end. He knows our comings and our goings. So, when we refuse to trust Him it only grieves His spirit because He has the ability to keep us on the straight and narrow path, safe and secure in His steadfast love. When our trust is placed in other things outside of the Lord we will only reap a path of turning and twisting. I wonder if this is why we sometimes feel as if we are going around the same mountain time and time again. Could it be that we are not trusting the Lord with all our heart? May we learn to place our complete trust in our Heavenly Father so that we can walk on the straight and narrow way rather than walking in circles and wondering which way is forward.    

Loving the Lord

“Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment.” Matthew 22:36-38

Jesus tells us that loving the Lord with all our heart, soul, mind and strength is the greatest commandment. It pleases the Lord to have His children loving and adoring Him unhindered and unabandoned. Every parent desires for their children to love them. I don’t believe that most parents desire a broken relationship with their children. Our Heavenly Father is much the same way. It warms His heart when His children desire to have close intimate fellowship with Him, to seek after Him, His kingdom and His ways. I suspect that if we just get this one area right, of loving the Lord with our entire being, with every heartbeat and every breath in our bodies, that pleasing the Lord will simply fall into place. 

If we continue on in Matthew 22 we will find the second greatest commandment.

Loving others

“And the second (law) is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” Matthew 22:39-40

Our Heavenly Father's very identity is love, so it is no surprise that He desires us to not only love Him with our entire being, but to love others. I believe that He wants us to love others with as much zeal and fervency as He is asking us to love Him with. Let’s just think about this for a minute. If we truly love the Lord completely and utterly unhindered then our natural tendency will be to overflow that same kind of love to every human being that God created in His own image. The question remains, do we zealously love the Lord so much so that it overflows onto others? Or are we secretly hoping that we don’t need to put the amount of effort into our relationship with God to see that kind of love become a byproduct of our time and efforts? Love takes work. No matter if we are loving the Lord or others. Far too often we as human beings become lazy in our relationship both with God and with others. We assume that we can just float through life and that loving God and others will just happen. I wish that were the case. I wish we could just snap our fingers and love would just ooze out of me. Unfortunately, it is not automatic. God created us to work at loving Him and loving others. Let’s challenge ourselves to keep our eyes focused on God so much that loving Him and loving others becomes just a bit easier because we are unwilling to be distracted by the cares of this world.

Heavenly Father we thank you for the treasures found in your word. We pray that we can continue to search out the things that please you. Your word tells us that when we seek we will find. Help us to find out what pleases you and apply those things to our lives. Increase our faith, our fear of you, our trust in you, our love for you and our love for others today. We know that these things please you. We know that these things bring delight to your heart. We pray that you write these things on our hearts and help us to purposefully put them into practice. We pray this in the precious name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.