The Message

Pleasing God

Sun shining through the Trees

What is your goal in life? What are you seeking to accomplish? What do you dream about?

The answers to those questions will drive many of your life choices. Most would make their goals centered around self.
Maslow’s Need Hierarchy would say that we have five leading up to Self Actualization.
Are we somewhere in those 5 needs as the driver of our goals? Certainly, Maslow’s needs are important, no doubt about that but what is #1, that is the question.

Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 5 that our #1 goal in life should be to please God. Rather than living to please self, God calls us to choose to die to self and live for Him. Wow! Talk about a reversal. We are called to walk by faith in Christ, to live to please Him, and allow Him to run our lives. That is an amazing declaration. God wants to control us. God wants to be God. Our response to all of this is to consider first of all if there is a God and second do I want a relationship with Him? There is only one way according to the Bible.

Without faith, it is impossible to please God. We must believe that He exists, believe that He created us, believe that He loves us, and choose to trust Him. Jesus went so far as to say that without Him (John 15:5), we could do nothing.

An illustration may help clarify this. We are like branches that we created by God to connect to Him. We connect by faith in His Word. As we live by faith, we obey Him And that
connection produces fruit, spiritual fruit such as love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, kindness, faithfulness and self-control. What does the fruit of your life look like? That will tell you if you are connected to God or not. Giving God control is the goal that He desires and He wants us to voluntarily choose to submit to His control and surrender to Him. For most that is too scary to do but for those of us who do, we know that it is the best way to live. A branch disconnected from the tree has no life, no fruit. We desperately need God!

It is awesome to think that God loves us so much that He wants us to choose Him. He is not a dictator. He could force all of us to do what He wants to please Him. But, that is not the case. Love is a two way street and God loves us first so that we would love Him in return. Jesus said in John 14:21 that if we love Him, we will obey Him. Is God at the top of our Needs or Goals in life or is it self? We are called to make our goal in life a new life in God that will be fulfilled beyond this life. Hebrews 11:1-6 reveals how God has planned to deliver us and bring us to Himself if we trust in Him.

Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for. By faith, we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible. By faith, Abel brought God a better offering than Cain did. By faith, he was commended as righteous, when God spoke well of his offerings. And by faith Abel still speaks, even though he is dead. By faith Enoch was taken from this life so that he did not experience death: “He could not be found, because God had taken him away.” For before he was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God. And without faith, it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.

Maslow’s Need Hierarchy to https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-maslows-hierarchy-of-needs-4136760

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