By His Blood – Pleasing God

My friend, John Lynch has a great story in his book, Truefaced about the two roads of Christianity. On the one side the sign says, “Pleasing God,” and on the side the sign says “Trusting God.”

Many of us had taken the path of pleasing God, and we believe that to accomplish this, we need to live a life that is good, and do many things in His name. The problem is, many of us get trapped and move from pleasing God, into “what must I now do to keep Him pleased”, and we end up in the same performance-based lifestyle that Jesus came to set us free from.

I struggled on that road for years. I always wanted to know if I was doing enough, doing His will, was I acceptable in His sight, etc. Not realizing I was trying to earn by my efforts something that Jesus had purchased for free, by His life and by His blood.

When Jesus was baptized in the Jordan River by John, the heavens Opened, and the Father spoke over Jesus, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” (Mark 1:11) It is important to realize, that up to this point, Jesus had not preached a single sermon, he had performed no miracles, raised no one from the dead, or done any other ministry work, apart from that which was common of a young boy growing up in Jewish culture. The one thing Jesus had, was that he trusted the Father.

Herein do we find the Good news to our acceptance and approval. From the Moment you have put faith in Christ, the heavens Opened over your life, and God spoke over you, “This is my beloved child, in whom I am well pleased.” Even if you never preach a sermon, or do any miracles, God is pleased and accepting of you, because you believe on his Son.

The way to pleasing God, is by learning to trust that God is already pleased with you because of your Faith in his son. For without Faith it is impossible to please him. (Hebrews 11:6) We don’t fast, pray, and do ministry to be pleasing to God, we do those things because we are pleasing to God.

The Father so loved the unrepentant, unsaved and sinful world enough to send his Son into it (John 3:16). How much more now, that we believe unto our adoption as sons, can we know we are accepted and pleasing to Him because of our Faith. We are not chasing the Wind, through our own efforts, but knowing He is Pleased with us, is the Wind in our sails that propels us to go do the works we were destined to walk in.

John Lynch talking about the two roads