What Does IT Take To Please God?

Written By: Amber Penney

What Does It Take to Please God?

No matter what I do, it doesn't feel like enough.

I tried my hardest to live out what I believed. I had a quiet time every morning. I prayed often. I memorized Scripture. I led a small Bible study group. And I never missed Sunday school or church. But it never seemed like I was doing enough, and I kicked myself for it.

What would it take to please God? What else did I need to do?

One day I asked my pastor these questions, and he had some encouraging words:

"If you're a Christian, God is pleased with you," he said. "It sounds like you're looking at your relationship with God as a to-do list. That's what's stealing your joy."

He pulled out his Bible and turned to Galatians. He told me how the people in the Galatian church felt a lot like me.

"Some people convinced the Galatians they had to keep a list of rules, too. So Paul wrote them a letter to remind them that God accepted them by grace, not because of anything they did.

"Now, don't quit having your quiet time or leading your Bible study. Those things are evidence of a changed heart. But you mustn't think that God's approval rests on how well and how often you do them."

That conversation marked the beginning of my journey toward freedom. I continued studying Galatians, which became a rediscovery of the gospel of grace. Growing up in the church, I had heard the message so many times—that God sent his Son to die for my sins—that eventually I began to tune it out. Yeah, I understand all that. Now let's move on to something else, I would think. But evidently I didn't understand it, because I began to believe that God's acceptance of me was based on my ability to do the right things.

I thought if I studied my Bible and prayed, God would be more pleased with me and more likely to use me than on a day when I overslept and missed my quiet time. But as the gospel became more clear to me, I began to see that even on my best day, when I seem to be doing everything right, I'm still a sinner. I never keep God's commands perfectly. That's why I needed God's grace in the first place.

I think what I lacked in the first few years of my Christian life was the understanding that God is infinitely pleased with me, not because of what I do but because of who I am—his child. Through his grace, I am "hidden with Christ in God" (Colossians 3:3). That means when God looks at me, he doesn't see my sin, he sees the perfection of his Son.

This truth finally clicked when I heard a pastor tell a story about his daughter, Robin. During high school she was enrolled in an honors English class. The first day of class the teacher talked about her expectations and handed out an overview of what they'd be studying.

Robin was completely overwhelmed. She came home and told her father he had to go talk with the teacher to get her out of the class. He agreed to set up a conference during which he and the teacher struck an agreement. The teacher wanted Robin to remain in the class, so she offered to give her an "A" from the very beginning, with the understanding that Robin still do the work and participate in class discussion. Robin agreed to the arrangement. And do you know what the teacher found? Robin turned in "A" work anyway. The teacher removed the threat of failure, and in its absence, Robin excelled.

After hearing that story, I realized that my feelings of desperation were the result of my fear of failure. Like Robin with her English class, I panicked when I thought of all the work the Christian life seemed to demand. How could I ever make a passing grade? Thankfully, just like Robin's teacher, God went ahead and gave me an "A." Knowing that, I'm finding a freedom I didn't know before. Understanding that I don't have to work for God's approval hasn't made me stop reading my Bible or memorizing Scripture. It's actually given me a passion for it. I'm also finding that the more I learn about his love for me, the more motivated I am to love others.

I still have days when I feel like I'm just trying to keep a list, when I look at the things I haven't done well and begin to drown myself in guilt. Or when, on the other hand, I look at what I have done well and begin to think I've got myself together.

When I hit these extremes, I realize I've forgotten the gospel again. I have to remind myself that my relationship with God is not based on my performance. I am what I am (a new creation) not be cause of anything I've done, but because of what God has done for me. He removed the threat of failure. Now I can relax and enjoy getting to know him.

Some of the ideas for this article were taken from Jerry Bridges' book The Discipline of Grace (NavPress). In his insightful book, Bridges points out that our "worst days are never so bad that we are beyond the reach of God's grace. And [our] best days are never so good that we are beyond the need of God's grace."

Source: www.christiantoday.com