Wednesday, February 27, 2013 - 4:20 pm

I read 1 Thessalonians today, and the second half of verse 4 in chapter 2 stuck out to me, "We are not trying to please men but God, who tests our hearts." A couple other verses in the book seemed to refer to pleasing God as well, so I thought I'd take a quick look at them. Chapter 4, verses 3-8 say, "It is God's will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality; / that each of you should learn to control his own body in a way that is holy and honorable, / not in passionate lust like the heathen, who do not know God; / and that in this matter no one should wrong his brother or take advantage of him. The Lord will punish men for all such sins, as we have already told you and warned you. / For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life. / Therefore, he who rejects this instruction does not reject man but God, who gives you his Holy Spirit." If I want to please God and follow His will, I must accept His Spirit, and the work that He wants to do in my life. If I thought I could live in impurity and still please God, that would be a foolish notion. Rejection of who He is and what His desires are is guaranteed to be displeasing. Imagine if someone told you they wanted nothing to do with anything you wanted, and expected you to be pleased! God loves us too much to be pleased when we push Him away. Clearly it's God's will that we're sanctified, and verses 23-24 of chapter 5 offer the prayer that God would completely sanctify us. Verse 24 gives the hope of success, "The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it."
The other passage that talks about God's will is chapter 5, verses 16-18. "Be joyful always; / pray continually; / give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus." If we put these concepts together, we get God's will for us being that we would be sanctified and holy, joyful and thankful; that we would experience the better life that He has called us to, enjoy it, appreciate it, and tell Him so. If you've never stepped up and into that life and love, don't miss out! If you have, there's always more, always further to go, and more to enjoy. God bless!