Making It Our Aim To Please God

by Micky Galloway

In the course of the day and certainly throughout life we make many decisions. Some are wise and please God and some are foolish and are displeasing to God. We must remember that we do not please God by accident. We must consider God in every decision we make. The apostle Paul wrote, “Being therefore always of good courage, and knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord (for we walk by faith, not by sight); we are of good courage, I say, and are willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be at home with the Lord. Wherefore also we make it our aim, whether at home or absent, to be well-pleasing unto him” (II Corinthians 5:6-9). We, too, must “make it our aim … to be well-pleasing unto him.”

Not everyone is pleasing to God. As Paul described the blessings of Israel when they escaped the bondage of Egypt and crossed the Red Sea he said, “Howbeit with most of them God was not well pleased: for they were overthrown in the wilderness” (I Corinthians 10:5). Paul commended the faithfulness of the Thessalonians as they faced persecutions. “For ye also suffered the same things of your own countrymen, even as they did of the Jews; who both killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and drove out us, and pleased not God, and are contrary to all men” (I Thessalonians 2:14-15).

Examples of those who did not please God. Remember, “There is a way which seemeth right unto a man; But the end thereof are the ways of death” (Proverbs 14:12). Cain evidently assumed the sacrifice of his vegetables was just as good as an animal sacrifice (Genesis 4). He and his sacrifice were rejected and Cain was cursed. Nadab and Abihu assumed that any fire would be as good as the fire from the coals of the altar (Leviticus 10:1-3; cf. Leviticus 16:25). They were consumed with fire from heaven and God said, “I will be sanctified in them that come nigh me, and before all the people I will be glorified. And Aaron held his peace.” King Saul sought to please the people of Israel rather than please God (I Samuel 15). His sin was equated to witchcraft and idolatry; he was rejected as king. “For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as idolatry and teraphim. Because thou hast rejected the word of Jehovah, he hath also rejected thee from being king” (I Samuel 15:23).

Examples of those who pleased God. In Hebrews 11:5-6 we read, “By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and he was not found, because God translated him: for he hath had witness borne to him that before his translation he had been well-pleasing unto God: And without faith it is impossible to be well-pleasing (unto him); for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and (that) he is a rewarder of them that seek after him.” Jesus pleased His Father. When Jesus was baptized and at the mount of transfiguration, the Father said, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:17; Matthew 17:5). That was the purpose for which Jesus came. “For I am come down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me.” “And he that sent me is with me; he hath not left me alone; for I do always the things that are pleasing to him” (John 6:38; 8:29). We noted that Paul said, “Wherefore also we make it our aim … to be well-pleasing unto him” (II Corinthians 5:6-9).

We must LEARN what pleases God. The inspired writer admonished the Ephesians not to live as they had in the past. “For ye were once darkness, but are now light in the Lord: walk as children of light (for the fruit of the light is in all goodness and righteousness and truth), proving what is well-pleasing unto the Lord” (Ephesians 5:8-10). Paul prayed continually for the Colossians, “that ye may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, to walk worthily of the Lord unto all pleasing, bearing fruit in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God …” (Colossians 1:9-10). The only way you can know what pleases God is to study His word! Why does this local church have Bible classes for all ages, Sunday morning and Wednesday night? Why do we preach the gospel on the Lord’s day and have gospel meetings? Why do we have home Bible studies? We want to teach the things that are pleasing to God so that we can learn how to live!

Are you pleasing God? Let us begin by believing what He says. “And without faith it is impossible to be well-pleasing (unto him)” (Hebrews 11:6). Let us focus our attention on transforming our lives. Change the things you know are wrong. “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, (which is) your spiritual service. And be not fashioned according to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God” (Romans 12:1-2). Let us also in every decision, “make it our aim, whether at home or absent, to be well-pleasing unto him” (II Corinthians 5:6-9).