What Pleases the Lord?
This reveals something about where I'm at in life... The other day I was watching Clifford the Big Red Dog on PBS with my son, Drew, while trying to get him to eat his breakfast. On this particular episode, Clifford's friend T-bone (another dog) was trying to impress a girl dog he had a crush on and tried to put on all different kinds of "cool" personas. In the end, she was fed up with it and told him to just be himself. That's a pretty good message for my little son and for children learning to have healthy self-esteem and maybe it's a good message for Christians... and maybe not. Read this week's scripture passage with that in mind and then have a look at the reflection questions below.
Ephesians 5:8-14
8 For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light 9 (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) 10 and find out what pleases the Lord. 11 Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. 12 It is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret. 13 But everything exposed by the light becomes visible—and everything that is illuminated becomes a light. 14 This is why it is said: "Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you."
When it comes to our impressing our Lord, just being ourselves isn't really the answer, because part of ourselves is interested in deeds of darkness, right? So how do we discover in each of our lives how we were made to please God? Each of us has unique gifts and character... how do we employ them to please our Lord? Think about that for your own daily life and what you do or could do, and if you're willing to write some thoughts for others to read, click on the comments link below. -Pastor Eric
5 comments:
This passage reminds me of the small group Bible study I am in. We are studying the Having a Mary Spirit book by Joanna Weaver. In it (Chapter 6), it talks about flesh woman, and how our daily struggles with the flesh affect us. A quote from Mark Rutland -- Satan's only real hope to control my life is me. We often labor under the misguided notion that Satan wants us to do his will. Satan has no will in our lives. He only wants us to do our will. We have met the enemy and he is us. It is difficult to think about how easy it is to do our will, and think it is Gods, and it is a close walk between self-esteem and the sin of pride. It is a daily struggle that takes Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, which seems more work than doing our own thing.
When interviewing prospective employees one of the questions I ask is " Tell me about a time that you could have done more but chose not to." The question helps me to see how strong the individual's self-esteem is. Some really struggle with an answer. It reminds me of how we live our daily lives. Are there things that we could have done for others of for God but choose not to. Things that would please God but we decide we are too busy or someone else will do it. We do each have unique gifts that we could use in our daily life that would be pleasing to God and we need to examine those talents and make them visible to God and others.
Verse 10 "and find out what pleases the Lord" is something forgotten by Eve in the garden & led to original sin. When the devil can get us to focus on what "pleases us" everything else goes downhill from there.
At times it seems that even though I've tried to please God by doing that which I know is right, (or at least assume God would be pleased with), I didn't really feel His presence afterwards. Did I just do this on my own to maybe help make up for some of the deeds of my darkness? When I get through all the muddy things in a day of my life, and realize that in reality, maybe I didn't do nearly enough Godly or righteous things, then do I get the feeling that God is possibly disappointed with me? Why when He has given me so much, don't I use those gifts as a benefit to others or His church? How am I supposed to have nothing to do with the disobedient, and still be a witness, even as poorly as I do it? Jesus' righteousness showed through even when He was meeting with the "least of these". He was able to show compassion and still seperate Himself by His character. Maybe it's not a love I have for those who don't know Him, but that I'm really hoping the littlest effort that I sometimes put forth, is somehow pleasing to Him, and He will bless me for that. The question would be, "What is my motive for using my gifts and showing good character? If it's for God's kingdom, than doors may be opened, but if it's for my self acknowledgement of doing good works, than it's no wonder I feel that maybe God is disappointed with me. Really deep down, I'm dissapointed with myself, for failing Him even again.
But He still Loves even me. Amazing.
First off, I think Eric was watching Clifford because HE wants to watch it, not his kid.
Now to the question.
Honestly, the only thing I do to please the Lord is pray. At night I pray, and most of the time it's for forgiveness, so can this be considered pleasing to him? In today's world, maybe it is, but I still don't feel that I do all the things he wants me to.
I am so wrapped up in my job, family, and recreational activities that I'm often too tired to do the things he has intended for all of us to do. All of the previously mentioned things make me happy, well except work, I mean who likes to work. I look at the people more involved at church than me, the people who are closer to God than me, and some of them don't seem happy. So why should I change anything? Now I definitely feel better after praying, but I don't think that doing more will make me happier. But it's not about me, it's about God, I should be doing what he wants. When God shows himself to me and lets me know what my purpose is and that what I believe in is true, then I will have a much easier time doing things that pleases him.
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