Wooo~ I live! Two down one to go! But man, talk about the most frustrating and ridiculous paper ever. I hate resource. Resource hates me. So we're even I guess. The only thing that stopped me from flipping out at the absolutely ridiculous amounts of abdominal CTs was the fact that God had been gracious and given me some really really easy questions to start with. Oh well, that's over with and I'm quite sure I passed so praise the Lord!
Wasn't really sure what I should share about today but I knew I had to share something and so after some prayer, thought and procrastination I've managed to narrow down my choices to either a song I've been listening to for the last 2hours (it's such an awesome song) or a devotion I did a couple of days ago. The devotion won so I'll share the song tomorrow since I'm now blissfully free and have eight whole days to study for MCQ and ethics. God bless ethics. Such a waste of time yet so wonderfully easy to answer. Anyways, today's topic is: What makes God smile?
The purpose of our entire life is to bring God pleasure. We were created for His pleasure (Revelations 4:11). How then can we bring God the pleasure He deserves? The Bible gives us a clear example of a life that gives pleasure to God: Noah.
In Noah's day, the entire world had become morally bankrupt. Everyone lived for their own pleasure, not God's. God could not find anyone on earth interested in pleasing Him, so He was grieved and regretted making man. God became so disgusted with the human race that He considered wiping it out. But there was one man who made God smile. The Bible says in Genesis 6:8,
"But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD."
As a result of Noah, we are alive today. From his life we can learn some things that make God smile.
God smiles when He is our first love. Noah loved God more than anything else in this world, even when no one else did. The Bibles tells us that "Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked with God." (Gen 6:9)
This is what God desires most from us. He yearns for us to walk with Him, to be in a relationship with Him. This is one of the most profound and astounding truths in the whole universe - that our Creator, the Lord God Almighty, wants to be with us. He made us just so He could love us. God says it Himself in Hosea 6:6, "For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings."
He does not care what material things we offer up to Him. He owns all the riches of the world. He wants us to know and acknowledge that He is God and that He is love and that He loves us more than anything in this world. It is only when we realise how much God loves us that we will truly see the importance of loving the Lord. Nothing else will even come remotely close. Jesus even calls it the greatest commandment. He said, "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment." (Matthew 22:37-38)
God smiles when we place our complete trust in Him. The second reason why Noah pleased God was that he trust God, even when it did not make sense. The Bible records, "By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. By his faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that comes by faith." (Hebrews 11:7)
Now there were just a couple of problems that could have caused Noah to doubt. The very first would be that Noah would have never, ever seen rain before. That's right. Never seen rain. Don't believe me? Lets go to Genesis 2.
5 and no shrub of the field had yet appeared on the earth and no plant of the field had yet sprung up, for the LORD God had not sent rain on the earth and there was no man to work the ground,
6 but streams came up from the earth and watered the whole surface of the ground-
So as you can see, no rain. It's like God telling you to build a shelter to protect yourself from falling snugglemuffins. I mean, would you honestly build a shelter to protect you from something like snugglemuffins? Heck, what IS a snugglemuffin?! Well Noah built himself a big ark to protect himself from this "rain" thing that God was sending down and He got saved. Second, Noah lived hundreds of miles from the nearest ocean. Even if he did build a ship, there was no way he would have ever got it to water. Third, there was the problem of rounding up all the animals and caring for them. Imagine, two of EVERY animal. I don't know how much is "every", but I'm quite sure it's a lot. Yet Noah didn't complain or grumble. He trust God completely and this made God smile.
Trusting God completely means having faith that He knows what is best for your life. You trust that He will keep His promises to you, help you with your problems and do the impossible when He has to. The Bible says, "the LORD delights in those who fear him, who put their hope in his unfailing love." (Psalms 147:11)
It took Noah 120 years to build the ark and one can only imagine how much grief he must have gotten from those living around him. A lot of us get upset and irritated when people laugh at us or mock us, just imagine, Noah would have gotten mocked for a whole 120 years. Most of us aren't even going to live for 120 years. Even when there was no sign of rain year after year, Noah kept on trusting in the Lord.
Can we trust God like Noah did? Can we trust Him with our lives? Trusting is an act of worship and when we have faith, God is happy. (Hebrews 11:6)
God smiles when we obey Him wholeheartedly. Saving the all the animals in the world wasn't exactly the easiest of tasks around. Everything had to be done according the God's will. The Lord gave Noah very detailed instructions as to the size, shape, and materials of the ark as well as the different numbers of animals to be brought on board. How did Noah respond to this? "Noah did everything just as God commanded him." (Genesis 6:22).
Noah did EVERYTHING that God told him to do. He did not miss out on anything. He did it when God told him and how God told him. That is wholeheartedness.
Imagine if God asked you to build a giant submarine to protect yourself from an impending snugglemuffin apocalypse, surely would have more than just a few questions and reservations yeah? Noah didn't. He obeyed God wholeheartedly. That means doing whatever God asks without reservation of hesitation. It must be made clear that delayed obedience is disobedience.
God does not owe us an explanation or reason for the things He asks us to do. God owes no man nothing. He OWNS man. Our own pitiful understanding can wait, but obedience can't. Obedience is the key to achieving understanding.
Often times we try to offer God our partial obedience. We want to pick and choose the commands we obey. We choose to only receive the words that are beneficial to us and ignore those that pierce through our soul. It is also important to know that partial obedience is disobedience.
Wholehearted obedience is done joyfully, with enthusiasm. The Bible says, "Worship the LORD with gladness" (Psalms 100:2). God's word is clear that we cannot and did not earn our salvation. Salvation comes only by grace and not our effort. However, as a child of God we can bring pleasure to our heavenly Father through obedience. Any act of obedience is also an act of worship. Why is obedience pleasing to God? Because it shows just how much we love Him. Jesus said, "If you love me, you will obey what I command." (James 14:15).
God smiles when we praise and thank Him continually. God loves it when we express our adoration and gratitude to Him. Because of Jesus' sacrifice for us, there is no longer a need for us to offer up animal sacrifices any longer. Instead, we are told to offer up to God "the sacrifice of praise" (Hebrews 13:15) and "the sacrifice of thanksgiving" (Psalms 116:17). We praise God for who He is and we thank God for what He has done. David said, "I will praise God's name in song and glorify him with thanksgiving. This will please the LORD" (Psalms 69:30-31).
Worship works both ways. We enjoy what God has done for us, and when we express that enjoyment to God, it brings Him joy - but it also increases our joy! The book of Psalms says, "But may the righteous be glad and rejoice before God; may they be happy and joyful." (Psalms 68:3).
God smiles at us. God loves us. Many times we feel that God is only pleased with us when we are doing "spiritual" things like reading the Bible, attending church and praying. However, God enjoys watching every detail of our lives. He does not miss a single move we make. The Bible says that God is "he who forms the hearts of all, who considers everything they do." (Psalms 33:15).
God loves us for who we are and He just wants us to love Him back. It is only when we love Him that we will be made perfect and whole. The Bible says, "The LORD looks down from heaven on the sons of men to see if there are any who understand, any who seek God." (Psalms 14:2). Will we be willing to make pleasing God the goal of our lives? Will we be prepared to give our all just to seek His face? There is nothing that God will not give to draw us back to Him. Not even His one and only Son. Seek first His kingdom today. God bless.
P.S. MAN this was a monster long post. I can't feel my fingers anymore. I'll post a shorter one tomorrow! =]
