Tuesday, May 04, 2004
40 Days of Purpose Day 9
What makes God smile?
When I was a little boy and became aware of God for the first time, I knew that I couldn't hide under the blanket or in the secret fort away from God. And I knew that when I was doing right, that God, like a father, smiled because He was happy I was good.
Making God smile is the goal of your life. And that makes your most important task to discover how to do just that. The Bible, in Ephesians 5:10 says, "Figure out what will please Christ, and then do it.
Noah made God smile. When God looked at the whole earth and couldn't find anyone but Noah who wasn't living for pleasure and morally bankrupt, He wanted to wipe it all out and start again. Noah's dedication and love of God made God smile.
There are five acts of worship that make God smile:
Parents don't expect their children to be perfect to enjoy them; in the same way God loves us and enjoys us at every stage of our spiritual development. You may have had parents or teachers who were unpleaseable. Don't assume God feels that way about you! He knows you are incapable of being sinless or perfect. God looks at our heart attitude to see whether pleasing Him is your deepest desire. That was Paul's goal. Will you make that the goal of your life? There is nothing God won't do for the person totally absorbed with this goal.
Tomorrow: The Heart of Worship.
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When I was a little boy and became aware of God for the first time, I knew that I couldn't hide under the blanket or in the secret fort away from God. And I knew that when I was doing right, that God, like a father, smiled because He was happy I was good.
Making God smile is the goal of your life. And that makes your most important task to discover how to do just that. The Bible, in Ephesians 5:10 says, "Figure out what will please Christ, and then do it.
Noah made God smile. When God looked at the whole earth and couldn't find anyone but Noah who wasn't living for pleasure and morally bankrupt, He wanted to wipe it all out and start again. Noah's dedication and love of God made God smile.
There are five acts of worship that make God smile:
- God smiles when we love Him supremely. Noah loved God more than anything in the world, even when no one else did. That is what God wants most from you: a relationship! Rick Warren writes that it is the most astounding truth in the universe; that our Creator wants to fellowship with us! God, in Hosea 6:6 tells us, "I don't want your sacrifices - I want your love; I don't want your offerings - I want you to know me.
- God smiles when we trust Him completely. Noah trusted God, even when it didn't make sense. Imagine this scene: Noah hears from God: "I can't trust anyone in the world but you, Noah. You are good and faithful to me. I'm going to destroy everyone in the earth except for you, your family and two of each animal that is in the earth. I'm going to flood the earth and you'll ride out the storm with all the animals until I bring dry land back to you." Noah, talking to God, says something like "how am I going to gather all the animals, and what kind of whatever will hold them in a flood?" Noah had never seen rain, and the nearest ocean was hundreds of miles away. Noah couldn't think of everything he could do to finish this task. So he trusted that God would show him what to do.
- God smiles when we praise and thank Him continually. We feel great when someone thanks us for a job well done with heartfelt appreciation and praise. God loves it too! He smiles whenever we express our praise and adoration to him. Because of Jesus' sacrifice, we don't have animal sacrifices anymore, but instead offer the sacrifice of praise and the sacrifice of thanksgiving. And an amazing thing happens when we offer this praise and thanksgiving: we are filled with joy, because we are making God smile.
- God smiles when we use our abilities. We are given natural talents and spiritual gifts, and when we are using those talents and gifts, God looks at us and smiles, as a doting father would of his child. You may think that God is pleased with you only when you are doing something spiritual, like church or simply praying. But everything you do, every human activity except sin, can be done for God's pleasure, if you do it with an attitude of praise. As Rick Warren says, even "washing dishes, repairing a machine, sell a product, write a computer program, grow a crop and raise a family, all for the glory of God." God also is pleased when He watches us enjoy His creation! He gave us the senses to enjoy all that He has made. Every act of enjoyment becomes an act of worship when you thank God for all of it!
God smiles when we obey Him wholeheartedly.God gave Noah the plans and the decisions to accomplish the task, and Noah did what God said, because he trusted God. And God was smiling, because Noah did exactly what God said to do. When the rains came, Noah and his family were safe because He trusted and obeyed God completely.
Parents don't expect their children to be perfect to enjoy them; in the same way God loves us and enjoys us at every stage of our spiritual development. You may have had parents or teachers who were unpleaseable. Don't assume God feels that way about you! He knows you are incapable of being sinless or perfect. God looks at our heart attitude to see whether pleasing Him is your deepest desire. That was Paul's goal. Will you make that the goal of your life? There is nothing God won't do for the person totally absorbed with this goal.
Tomorrow: The Heart of Worship.
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