Well Pleasing – Part 6
A person can be pleasing to God by fearing Him. Psalm 147:11 says, “The LORD takes pleasure in those who fear Him, In those who hope in His mercy.” Those who fear God, keep His commandments (Ecclesiastes 12:13). The apostle John wrote, “For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome” (1 John 5:3). Jesus said in Matthew 28:20, “teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you….” Christ wanted His disciples to observe all His commandments. When we do this, we can be pleasing to God, but can we?
The New Testament has around 180,000 words. It can be read in 15-20 hours. Of those 180,000 words, only 1,633 of them are imperative (command) verbs. Of these, 1,357 are commands and prohibitions. Some of them are repeated, meaning that the actual number of commands is much less. It is not only possible to read them, but to know them, understand them, and do them. By contrast, there are somewhere between 4-8 million words on the books in the state of Texas, and we are required to obey every single one. If we can be pleasing to the state of Texas by observing their 4-8 million words, then certainly we can be pleasing to God and Christ by observing His 1,357 commands and prohibitions, and Christ is a lot more forgiving than the state of Texas! The bottom line is that if we want to be pleasing to God, we can be pleasing to God! Why would one NOT want to please God? The only reason I can think of is so that he can please himself instead of God, and, this is what many choose to do. Remember Matthew 7:23? “And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’”
God bless you, and I love you.
Kevin Cauley