Why we should look to be
Pleasing to God
“..5 But also for this very reason, giving all
diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control
perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to
brotherly kindness love. For if these things are yours and abound, you will
be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ ..”
(2Peter 1: 5/8)
So what does it really mean
‘to be pleasing to God’? Grace, can
cover a multitude of actions, some of these are shown in the above text, with
actions such as. . .Virtue ~ Knowledge ~ Self-Control ~ Perseverance ~ Brotherly
Kindness ~ Love. . . WOW, this could not be made more clear. God will never
surely ask anything of us without first giving us the tools, to enable us to
complete what He has asked.
What I find sad as well as
somewhat misguided, is that most of our Christian lives, and most of Religion,
and most Church’s, is they define ‘Grace’ as unmerited favour and love, which
is not only just wrong but totally incomplete. Surly as Christians we have to
stand in the fullness, so ‘what is Grace’?
Such is the immense meaning, that, God’s unmerited favour and love, Well Grace
is God’s unmerited power. This in turn gives us empowerment also enablement to face what God has in store for us to
do.
So what had the ‘paralytic’
man ever done to receive God’s unmerited power and grace here in . .
".. For which
is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Arise
and walk’? But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to
forgive sins”—then He said to the
paralytic, “Arise, take up your bed, and go
to your house.” And he arose and departed to his house. Now when the multitudes saw it, they marveled and
glorified God, who had given such power to men. ." (Mat 9: 5/8)
Because of the a fore mentioned, we now need to
talk of God’s ‘empowerment’ that had/has never earned God’s strength. Paul went
before God to talk of the ‘thorn’ in
his side. The thorn in his side, was actually Satan/devil, as it was
distracting Paul from his work. God turned around to Paul and said . .”.. My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness” (2
Corinthians 12:9). . God in that
instant showed Paul that . .
‘..His grace is in His strength, His empowerment
and
ability is all Paul/we
will ever need in our lives..’
In Latin there are a couple words that put
together many of us know of may be a slightly different meaning, they are . .
o
Carris ~ means ‘Grace’
o
Carris-ma means ‘anointing’
. .today we think of Charisma
to meaning..
1.compelling attractiveness or charm that can inspire
devotion in others. "he has tremendous charisma and stage presence"
|
synonyms:
|
charm, presence, aura, personality, force of
personality, strength of character, individuality; More
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2.a divinely conferred power or talent.
Next time you use the word ‘Charis-ma’, stop
and think is being ushered. To say that this person has ‘Grace’, without
empowerment, can never be done as God empowers us with His Grace. You can’t be
a Farmer without a tractor. It would be silly to be a farmer without one! To
talk of Grace, then you must talk of ‘blameless-Grace’. No matter whichever way
around, when you talk of one, inadvertently you talk of the other.
‘Grace should be
the divine influence on your heart,
and it’s reflection on
your life.’
God gave us ‘His’ Grace to reflect upon
others, and NOT hold to it, hide it up our jumpers. Just like a lighthouse we
should be forever letting it shine bright. Grace should always be seen and
reflected near and far no matter of life’s storms, we must always let it shine
brightly through us.
When he came and had seen the grace of God, he
was glad, and encouraged them all that with purpose of heart they should
continue with the Lord. (Act 11: 23)
It’s time to prick up your ears, because
these next 4 examples of how God’s Grace will ‘produce proof’ in our loves. . .
o
God’s Grace will produce infallible proof
o
God’s Grace will produce infallible proof of healing
o
God’s Grace will produce infallible proof of soundness
o
God’s Grace will produce infallible proof of deliverance
. . . always bear in mind that the Grace of God is actually an untapped
force that will do more than just affect our standing with God, by crediting us full righteousness. Grace can
also affect our spiritual experience.
In fact we see that, Grace is marked
by God’s enabling work within us, to overcome our helplessness. . .
Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom
which cannot be shaken, let us have grace, by which we may serve God
acceptably with reverence and godly fear. (Hebrews 12 : 28)
. . . In
other words, this passage tells us that we can’t serve God with reverence &
fear, without Grace.
For when comes the time that God
tells/instructs to something, He won’t do unless He has already given us all
the sufficient Grace to help us. This goes for every time God has us to
something that requires us to do acceptably serve Him, or God will ensures He
gives us an abundance of Grace to help us through the trails along the way.
Here comes the simplest part, you would think
If we try to do what God wants
of us then prepare. Because under their
own steam, we are but fools. If I wanted to take my car 200 miles down the
road, and only expect you to give ‘Grace’ in the form as fuel/gas. You surly
would not ever try and push the car up & down dales, surely that is just
idiotic. God’s Grace is freely given out to help, Grace may be used to cover up
our past sin, just as Grace is used to empower us to NOT sin any more. . .
He who says he abides in Him ought himself also
to walk just as He walked. (1 John 2: 6)
. . . just try and walk as Jesus walked, we’re going to fail all day
long .
Now comes the most difficult
part of this, in that to succeed we need not only God’s empowerment through
Grace, we must believe and have faith of your success. It’s like making a fruit
loaf but you never used the fruit, well it’s just going to fail.
# AM I GETTING THROUGH YET? #
We can only ever come by faith more than our
Own ability
You are going to fall flat on
your face, relapse, when you really try and stop taking drugs, or, watching
porn, and your sins are doomed. Why? Because you are not really empowered by
God’s Grace. God does mean you are exempt from pleasing God. There is how ever
a big difference between God being pleased with us being saved/born-again, and
God somehow being happy with our behaviour.
In Jesus prayer for ‘all’
believers, describes how deep God’s true love is showed. . . I in them, and You in Me;
that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have
sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me. (John 17 : 23). . .If only believers, and those that don’t, could only
grasp this. God loves us in the same measure that He does Jesus. So many miss
this very special message, God there for is only pleased by our behaviour that
shows goodness to our neighbour. You see our Heavenly Father love is always
unmerited, but, at the same time His pleasure in us will not always be
unmerited.
So my ending though is this. . .
‘You can’t earn His love
But rather
You can please Him’
