What pleases God? Is it our “amens”, our fluid prayer life, the verses we remember and/or the songs that we sing (Psalm 45:1).  If we respond to every question presented to us with, “Praise the Lord” or think, “Isn’t God good?” or answer every question with “God is good all of the time and all of the time God is good”, are we pleasing or, are we placating Him? Paul in his epistle to the sinful church at Corinth asks, “If I give everything, I have to the poor but offer no love with it, what good is it?”. To answer the two questions, we need to search our hearts and ask ourselves, “What do you really want? Is it the trappings of this world or peace in the KOG?”; we are not able live in both places and yet have peace in our lives although but, we can most certainly try (Matthew 6:24-26).

Pleasing God is not about religion nor denominational beliefs, it is about having a servant’s heart for people despite their behavior, cultural beliefs, and/or where they are in life. If we are to live in our Father’s house, we must abide by His rules which conflict with the world’s rules. The reason we seek God, and his Word is that we want to change something in our lives that is causing us grief; Yet when it comes to changing it, we hold back thinking, “I like this option”. God’s word calls this notion, “Double-minded” (James 5:5-8). Because we are unwilling to leave behind the things that cause us trouble (Galatians 4:8-11). If I could parallel our relationship to God, it would be like having a desire to please our spouse, parents, teachers, etc. Yet, when they ask us to do something, we get upset or give it half effort depending on how we feel. So, in our search to please God, it really is as simple as, “Obedience”, “Faithfulness”, and love.

MK