Friday: Further Thought – To Be Pleasing to God
Daily Lesson for Friday 17th of January 2025
Read Ellen G. White, “ ‘Let Not Your Heart Be Troubled,’ ” Pages 662–680, in The Desire of Ages.
Image © Stan Myers from GoodSalt.com
“The Lord is disappointed when His people place a low estimate upon themselves. He desires His chosen heritage to value themselves according to the price He has placed upon them. God wanted them, else He would not have sent His Son on such an expensive errand to redeem them. He has a use for them, and He is well pleased when they make the very highest demands upon Him, that they may glorify His name. They may expect large things if they have faith in His promises.
“But to pray in Christ’s name means much. It means that we are to accept His character, manifest His spirit, and work His works. The Saviour’s promise is given on condition. ‘If ye love Me,’ He says, ‘keep My commandments.’ He saves men, not in sin, but from sin; and those who love Him will show their love by obedience.
“All true obedience comes from the heart. It was heart work with Christ. And if we consent, He will so identify Himself with our thoughts and aims, so blend our hearts and minds into conformity to His will, that when obeying Him we shall be but carrying out our own impulses. The will, refined and sanctified, will find its highest delight in doing His service. When we know God as it is our privilege to know Him, our life will be a life of continual obedience. Through an appreciation of the character of Christ, through communion with God, sin will become hateful to us.”—Ellen G. White, The Desire of Ages, p. 668.
Discussion Questions
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We had a big storm sweep though our area a couple of nights ago and have been without electricity since then. Further, the cell phone towers took a battering and our Internet connection has suffered. It is when an event like this happens you suddenly realise how much we depend on electricity. Even our battery-powered devices only lasted a few hours. Fortunately we live in a community where help is available. They are areas in our community that have been unaffected and there are offers of help from them. We can store our fridge and freezer contents in someone else's fridge. Another has offered us a generator. We can get a hot shower at a neighbour's place because they have a gas hot water service. ... and so on.
God's love is a bit like our electricity situation. When the big pipe of love is cut for whatever reason. God depends on people to deliver that love. We have a great theology about the love of God and the work of the Holy Spirit and the sacrifice of Jesus, but we can fall short in the distribution of God's love in a crisis. We are in a crisis. For many people. the big pipe of love is cut off, forgotten or ignored, and God is calling on his community members to share his love. The Holy Spirit may be our comforter, but sometimes it kicks our butts and tells us to get into action and share the love with our community. God's love becomes tangible when shared. It is very hard to argue with a Christian about his God when he is filling your mouth with food.
I love this comment. Earlier in the week I listened as a young lady was interviewing 4 pastors regarding the devastating fires in LA. Evidently some Christians are saying God is bringing about his judgment. The interviewer asked each pastor, 4 different denominations, where they saw God in the fires. 3 of them said their version of “we have to trust that God knows what he’s doing”. The 4th pastor, much to my relief, said that he didn’t see God at all in the fires. Where he saw God was in strangers opening up their homes to people they didn’t know, as a place of refuge. He saw God in the people out there, rolling up their sleeves and asking where can I help. That is where he saw God. It was a breath of fresh air to me to hear him say that.
Hello Maurice – last weekend, we also experienced the effects of a heavy windstorm. These Chinook winds produced gusts of over 100 miles an hour in some areas. Electricity went out and so did the Internet, but were able to be restored rather quickly. (4 hr.)
Your comment comparing God’s love to “our electricity situation’, brought a thought to mind. "Through His Son Jesus Christ, God has established a powerful and transformative world-wide channel (transformer) for the unending, relentless flow of heaven's power, so assuring humanity that this divine energy is always available whenever and whoever needs it."
Substations are established in every believer. For the believer, being plugged into heaven’s ‘electricity’ circuit, there is no other way in which this heavenly ‘electricity’ can manifest itself other than by the ‘good works’ which God has designed in advance for man to engage in – Eph.2:9-10. 'Outages' only happen when an unrighteous act trips a braker; then we need to go the the 'distributor box' to turn it to 'on' again. 🙂
Thank God for Who He Is. Despite the mess the Earth is in, God still shows His love for humans. Trusting in this love is all I need!
As long as we 'worship' God in Spirit and Truth, we are “pleasing in His sight” - 1 John 3:22; John 4:24. But what are His commandments, and what is His Will according to His Spirit? To know this, God gave us His Son to become the "Cornerstone" - the foundation stone – with which everything we encounter in life ought to align with.
As our Cornerstone, Jesus serves as our perfect example, offering to align every aspect of our lives with God's Will - our thoughts, emotions, and deeds. Moreover, He did not leave us unsupported in Spirit either, as He asked the Father to give us the Holy Spirit as our Comforter and Guide during His absence.
Through the Holy Spirit, we receive everything we need to live our life ‘pleasing to God’. To complete our transformation from living in the darkness of this world to walking in the heavenly Light, we are gifted with faith and love - the fruit of the Spirit working within us. In every way, God has fully equipped us to be 'pleasing' in His sight – Gal. 5:22-23.
Applying His gift of faith, we are called to follow His Will as found in Jesus Christ. We become 'pleasing' to God by loving Him with all our heart as we love/treat our neighbor as we want to be loved/treated. By doing so, He promises “to fulfill the desires of our hearts” - Psalm 37:3-5. Matthew 22:36-40; Luke 10:27; Mark 12:28-31. To God belong the Honor and Glory for all the things He has done!