When growing up did you try to
please your parents by being good? I wasn’t very good at this; I always seemed
to get it wrong and was forever in trouble. It just didn’t work for me, so, I
was either grounded, got a beating, or had things taken away as punishment. The
harder I tried to please them by being good - well, let’s just I couldn’t seem
to get it right.
Many can have
this attitude towards their Heavenly Father. They try to please Him by being
good. But, the truth of the matter is, as Christ-followers He has already accepted
us in Christ. This happened when we were
not good, were broken and in sin. As Paul has said,
“But God
showed His great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were
still sinners” (Rom 5:8 NLT)
There is a
passage in the Bible that, if taken out of context, may seem to be saying that
we need to try to please Him by being good. That is,
“But you are to be perfect, even as
your Father in heaven is perfect” (Matt 5:48 NLT)
But if we read this passage in
context (verses 43-48), it is talking
about being mature in loving your enemies. It is within this context that we
are to be perfect, even as your Father in Heaven is perfect. That is perfect in
heavenly love.
I finish with
a quote from one George MacDonald, a
mentor of C.S. Lewis. He picked up this idea and said that we need to be
growing in love of others,
“Every father
is pleased with the baby’s first attempt
to walk: no father would be satisfied with anything less than a firm, free,
manly walk in a grown-up son. In the same
way, he (MacDonald) said, ‘God is easy to please, but hard to satisfy.’”[1]
Pause in His presence for a moment
and think this over…
[1] “God is easy to please, but hard
to satisfy.” http://www.cslewis.com/god-is-pleased-but-hard-to-satisfy/ (22nd March 2018).
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