The theme of our devotion today is one many people wrestle with. What does God think of me? You may have had parents, a teacher, or a supervisor you could never please. If I could not please ordinary people, then how could I ever please God? Also, if I could never please God then why try? In a spiritual sense, our enemy satan is putting lies into our mind. He wants us to think that that God is a mean and does not love us.
The good news is there is no one who loves us more than our Lord Jesus Christ. There is no one in all creation who has suffered more for our sake than Jesus Christ did on the cross. When I begin to reflect on how much the Lord cares for and loves me, it moves me to want to please Him. Sometimes in life I sin and have to ask the Lord to forgive me. When that happens, the Lord wipes my sins away.
The parents of John the Baptist 6 Zechariah and Elizabeth were righteous in God’s eyes, careful to obey all of the Lord’s commandments and regulations.1] They were not perfect people but tried the best they could to follow and obey the Lord. (The word righteous means to be just, right, proper or correct.)
The Apostle Paul writes in 1 Cor. 1:30, “ You are God’s children. He sent Christ Jesus to save us and to make us wise, acceptable, and holy.”[2]We are righteous or made holy by what Jesus did for us on the cross. To please God really comes down to placing my faith in Jesus as my Savior. It does not mean I have to be perfect or never sin. Hebrews 11:6 says, “And it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him.”
As a believer God is pleased with you.
If you have not taken that step of faith the Good Shepherd Jesus is calling you right now to do so. Nothing pleases the Lord more than people who turn to Him in faith as we see in Luke 15:10. In the same way, there is joy in the presence of God’s angels when even one sinner repents.” [3]
To hear the story of Zechariah, listen here:
[1, 3] Tyndale House Publishers. (2015). Holy Bible: New Living Translation (Lk 1:6, Luke 15, 10). Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers.
[2] English Version (CEV) Copyright © 1995 by American Bible Society 1 Cor. 1:30