1 Chronicles 29:17 I know also, my God, that You test the heart and have pleasure in uprightness.
Psalms 103:21 Bless the LORD, all you His hosts, You ministers of His, who do His pleasure.
Psalms 147:11 The LORD takes pleasure in those who fear Him, In those who hope in His mercy.
This morning as I sat in the front room of our home on Bantayan Island, I looked out towards the white sand at the shores edge and watched two beautiful children running and laughing with pure joy on their faces. The pleasure that I felt as I watched their innocent enjoyment of life, brought me joy and a feeling of happiness.
I began to reflect on how the Lord of heaven looks down on all the people of earth and wondered how rare it must be that He experiences pleasure in seeing the way we live our lives.
The Bible describes the fact that God made us for His pleasure. He created us to enjoy fellowship with Him and that He might partake of the pure fruit of our sincere love for Him, as we live lives that please Him.
How often do we consider how what we say and do affects the Lord? Is He pleased by the way that we speak to other people who are also made in His image? Are the thoughts of our heart pure and Holy and dedicated to a constant awareness of His presence in our life?
Before we make a decision to do something, or go some place, do we consider whether or not it would please the Lord?
When we take each moment of our life to think of the Lord first and consider whether our life brings Him pleasure, it will affect what we say and do. If we seek to say things and do things that are purely motivated out of a desire to bring pleasure to the Lord, He takes notice and looks on with great pleasure.
Malachi 3:16 Then those who feared the LORD spoke to one another, And the LORD listened and heard them; So a book of remembrance was written before Him For those who fear the LORD And who meditate on His name.
So many times as we seek to walk with the Lord, we ask whether a particular behavior is permitted by the law of God. “Is it okay for a Christian to _______?
The question that we really should be asking is: “Will it please the Lord”.
Some people have the liberty to do certain things that are not expressly forbidden in the Word of God, while others cannot partake of these things because it would bring them into condemnation. In the exercise of any Christian liberty, it must always be considered whether the exercise of our liberty would cause another Christian to stumble. Paul said that for this reason, he did not exercise certain liberties that he felt he could practice, because to do so might cause a brother to stumble.
1 Corinthians 8:8-13 But food does not commend us to God; for neither if we eat are we the better, nor if we do not eat are we the worse. But beware lest somehow this liberty of yours become a stumbling block to those who are weak. For if anyone sees you who have knowledge eating in an idol’s temple, will not the conscience of him who is weak be emboldened to eat those things offered to idols? And because of your knowledge shall the weak brother perish, for whom Christ died? But when you thus sin against the brethren, and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ. Therefore, if food makes my brother stumble, I will never again eat meat, lest I make my brother stumble.
In the above example Paul uses meat that had been offered in a Pagan temple, to Pagan gods, and then is sold in the public meat market, as his illustration. Some Christians could not in good conscience, eat meat that had been offered to an idol. Others would say, “It is just meat, and I am not worshipping an idol, I worship the God of Abraham, so I can eat it…”
Paul said that he had the freedom to each any meat, because everything he did, he did it as unto to Lord. For the sake of a brother who does not have this freedom to eat meat that had been offered to an idol, Paul said that he would not exercise his freedom and eat this meat.
We could apply this principle to anything that is not expressly forbidden by God’s Word. Remembering that if we exercise our freedom to partake, we might cause someone else to stumble.
When we abstain, not for ourselves, but for the sake of someone else, the Lord is pleased by this kind of behavior.
When we forgive someone who has hurt or used us and instead pray for them and do good things for this person, the Lord feels pleasure by our actions. When a man is kind to his wife and treats her with gentleness and tenderness, the Lord is pleased. When we give our money to help the poor, the Lord feels pleasure in our sacrifice.
When someone comes to us with the latest story and we refuse to hear it because to do so would be to receive gossip, this pleases the Lord. When we refuse to speak unkindly or negatively about any other person, this brings great pleasure to the Lord.
When our relationship with Jesus is more important to us that anything else in our life, the Lord is well pleased.
To live a life as as a carefree, happy and pure child of God, skipping along in our life, seeking to please Him in all that we say and do, this is a life that fulfills the purpose for which it was created, to bring pleasure to God
Rob Robinson
