PRAY TO PLEASE GOD

 

PRAY TO PLEASE GOD

Heb. 13:20-21a And now, may the God of peace, who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, equip you with all you need for doing his will. May he produce in you, through the power of Jesus Christ, all that is pleasing to him.  NLT

      This is a prayer that every believer should pray for both themselves and others.  It should be the desire of all of our hearts to live lives that please God and bring us peace.  An absence of peace means that things aren’t right first of all with Christ and then, our fellow man.

      There is resurrection power in God.  He who raised Jesus from the dead is able to raise the vilest of sinners from the dead.  He is not limited by our sinfulness.  He can and will give life to all who come to Him for the forgiveness of their sins.

      There is ample power through Christ to equip us with all we need to do His will.  We don’t have what it takes to fulfill God’s will for us without Christ.  Without Christ, we are controlled by our sinful nature.  We lack the willpower to want to obey God.  Only in Christ do we care to find and do His will for our lives.  When we take our eyes off of Christ, we easily get distracted and lose our passion for living out His will for us. 

     What is God’s will for us?  The bottom line is, God wants us to honor and glorify Him in all we do.  He is pleased when we live righteously before Him.  He is pleased when we filter all of our living and thinking through Christ.  He is pleased when we make Christ the focal point of all of our living.  It is His will that we be a holy people before Him. 

      There is only one way in which we can truly please God, and that is through the power of Christ working in us.  It is only as Christ works in us to transform us into a godly people that we become a people pleasing to God.  We are not capable of getting it right without Christ’s help.  He alone can change the heart so that our motives are pure.  He alone can make us holy. 

      It is my prayer that I will always let Christ work His wondrous work in me to make me holy.  And it is my prayer for you today as well.  May the Lord help each of us to produce all that is pleasing and acceptable to God according to His will for us.