How to Please God

I've spent most of my life trying to please God, working harder and studying more, beating myself up for my failings -- and only recently starting to find out what really does please him.  It's much simpler than I used to think! 

My wife, The Amazing Joanne, puts it this way:  God can do anything he wants for fun, and he decided to adopt us!  That's a paraphrase of Eph. 1:5, which says "God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure."  (See Genesis 1:31, where God calls us, as part of his creation, "very good.")  So in that broader sense, you have already pleased God, just by existing!  But how do you know what to do after that?

Imagine you were an orphan living on the streets in the wrong part of town, hungry and dirty and sick and alone, sleeping in your rags at night.  One day an incredibly rich family sees you, loves you that instant, and takes you home to their mansion, where you have more food, clothing and love that you ever imagined existed in the whole world together.  How could you show that family appreciation for their love and generosity?  Would you reject their gifts and insist on earning them first?  You would be wise to decide that, since they've been so good to you, then you should learn their values and ways, and find how to be good to others also.

After describing who we are -- being securely "in Christ"-- in Ephesians 1-3, Paul finally gives us something to do in the latter chapters.  He says in 5:1-2, "Imitate God, therefore, in everything you do, because you are his dear children.  Live a life filled with love, following the example of Christ."  In verses 8-9, "For once you were full of darkness, but now you have light from the Lord. So live as people of light! For this light within you produces only what is good and right and true."  And in verse 10, "Carefully determine what pleases the Lord."  There are other commands and cautions in these verses too, but the core is this:  we are God's children -- adopted through Jesus Christ -- so our new family values are love and generosity and light. 

What pleases God?  That, since we are "in Christ," we live by our new family values of light and love and acceptance, loving others as generously as we've been loved by God, and by following the Holy Spirit's lead, "carefully determine what pleases the Lord."  That's enough to keep us fully occupied the rest of our lives until we see God -- when we will finally start to understand just how much he really loves us.