Tuesday, April 14, 2015
What is Pleasing?
Mark Roberts:
We also have to look beyond ourselves. What is good and right and true often plays out on a much larger scale than our immediately observable horizon can dictate. That's part of what God's view entails. To often people will therefore think that God is cruel because they get less for the sake of something greater. But that is just more of our own desire getting in the way. Nor is it cruel.
Say a screwdriver really wants to be a hammer, I mean really, really wants to be.It goes and has itself altered - it inserts its blade into a wooden handle. It hollows out a hammer head so that its handle will fit in the head. It now looks very much like a hammer. But start hammering with it. The blade may slip out of the hammer. The screwdriver handle will shatter inside the hammer head. It'll hammer fine for a little while under a light load, but you really stress that thing and it will fail. How happy will it be when it fails at being a hammer. It can dance around in its hammer costume and tell you its a hammer, but it cannot do what a hammer does, certainly not anywhere near as well as a hammer. It is, in point of fact, cruel to alow the scredriver to pretend it is a hammer.
It's all in your perspective.
God's will desire perspective
How can I know what pleases the Lord? The answer: Pay attention to all goodness, righteousness, and truth. As you think about the possibilities before you, ask yourself and the Lord which one has the potential to produce more good, right, and truthful fruit. Take time to seek the Lord's wisdom about this, consulting with wise brothers and sisters in Christ.Following the cultural trend is a form of following our own desire. In order to please God, we have got to let go of our own desires. We have to look outsides of ourselves.
But (and this is key) make sure your understanding of goodness, righteousness, and truth is shaped by Scripture. It would be easy to fill in the meaning of these words with your own hunches or with whatever is trendy in the culture. Yet, by doing either of these, you would be likely to miss the mark. If you are going to produce fruit that pleases God, then you need to be sure your life is filled with what he considers to be good, right, and true. Moreover, as God's children, we are to reflect his own character in our lives. Thus, our life choices should be shaped by God's own goodness, righteousness, and truthfulness as revealed in Scripture and made flesh in Jesus Christ.
We also have to look beyond ourselves. What is good and right and true often plays out on a much larger scale than our immediately observable horizon can dictate. That's part of what God's view entails. To often people will therefore think that God is cruel because they get less for the sake of something greater. But that is just more of our own desire getting in the way. Nor is it cruel.
Say a screwdriver really wants to be a hammer, I mean really, really wants to be.It goes and has itself altered - it inserts its blade into a wooden handle. It hollows out a hammer head so that its handle will fit in the head. It now looks very much like a hammer. But start hammering with it. The blade may slip out of the hammer. The screwdriver handle will shatter inside the hammer head. It'll hammer fine for a little while under a light load, but you really stress that thing and it will fail. How happy will it be when it fails at being a hammer. It can dance around in its hammer costume and tell you its a hammer, but it cannot do what a hammer does, certainly not anywhere near as well as a hammer. It is, in point of fact, cruel to alow the scredriver to pretend it is a hammer.
It's all in your perspective.
God's will desire perspective
