Pleasing God

By: Kim Garrett

Thursday, October 3, 2024

We ask God to give you complete knowledge of his will and to give you spiritual wisdom and understanding. Then the way you live will always honor and please the Lord, and your lives will produce every kind of good fruit. Colossians 1:9-10 (NLT)

Life will never make sense until you and I realize we are made by God and for God. Until we do, our human nature will try to take our focus off spiritual things. When our nature wins, we seek fulfillment and meaning in worldly places. Seeking the world is a waste of precious time and energy gifted to us from above (Psalm 90:12). The Apostle Paul knew the believers in Colossae were being deceived by false teachers. These false teachers were also challenging the supremacy of God's Son. Paul’s instruction to the Church was simple: Please the Lord!

But how do we do that? How do we live in a way that honors God and makes His heart smile? Thankfully, Paul doesn’t leave us hanging, he prefaces the "how" with foundational truths found in verse 9: know God's will, and have spiritual wisdom and understanding. Our lives can't honor God until we are filled with the knowledge and understanding of who God is and what He requires.

Here are some things that please God:

1. Be fruitful. Everything we do is done for Jesus, and we serve Him because we love Him.
2. Increase your knowledge of God. Dive deeper into His Word so you can understand His will and apply it to your life.
3. Draw close to Him, and He will draw closer to you (Hebrews 11:6).
4. Operate in His power, not your own. Ask the Holy Spirit for help when you feel weak.
5. Be patient, and always have an attitude of joy. The joy of the Lord is our strength (Nehemiah 8:10).
6. Finally, give thanks to God who has invited you to be part of His plan and His promise.

The One who created us promises to sustain us. When we place our trust in Jesus, everything starts making sense because He holds everything together. Let's show Him how much we love Him by loving each other.

For God in all his fullness was pleased to live in Christ, and through him God reconciled everything to himself. He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth by means of Christ’s blood on the cross. Colossians 1:19-20 (NLT)

Trust God! Embrace what is yours, it was bought and paid for by Christ.

Read: Romans 12:2; Ephesians 4:32; Colossians 1:16-17