Living out of His pleasure
The sun was shining in the window as I held our newest little blessing in my lap and fed her a bottle.
I looked up at the clock and my heart sank.
"Late again," I thought. "Poor girls... When will I get the timing of the morning down? No wonder Avi is so upset."
As usual, I felt like kicking myself. Two weeks of this, and I still don't have it down....
A gentle nudge from within stopped me from going any further down that path.
"Do you really expect to be mistake free?"
//
The last couple of weeks have been uncomfortable for me as I learn the ropes of endless paperwork, visits, communication with people involved in the foster care system, court dates and building a relationship with the baby's biological family.
It would certainly be a lot easier if all I had to do was bond with the baby, but that's only one part of it -and even that has complicated emotions involved.
Over and over, something inside me cringes as another thing pops up that I forgot to do, or fear speaks of yet another opportunity to fail looming ahead.
And I find myself needing to set my hearing to a different frequency -the frequency of God's voice.
Or else, the tendency to fear failure and pain would shout far too loudly for me to accomplish anything at all.
//
I don't remember the exact question I was asking God one particular morning, but a desire to know how to navigate this complicated path had me perplexed.
And then I saw this verse:
"He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked." (1 John 2:6)
So simple. Just walk like Jesus.
How did He walk?
Jesus walked in dependence on the Father, one moment at a time.
Jesus was at peace even in the most turbulent of times.
Jesus was conscious of the needs of those around Him and met whatever needs He could without hesitation.
He was prayerful.
He was discerning and wise.
He was loving and full of kindness.
He was gentle and lowly.
But one thing that struck me the most about how He walked this earth is this: He was conscious of the Father's pleasure in Him.
...Do I walk like that? Am I conscious of His pleasure in me?
If I'm to walk as Jesus walked, this is part of it.
Many of us who follow Jesus live to please God.
I'm not saying it's wrong to want to please God, but what if the problem of Him being pleased with us or not is already solved in Christ?
What if now we are meant to live out of His pleasure in us?
There is a huge difference between living to please God and truly living because He is pleased.
You see, if you watched Jesus as He walked this earth, you wouldn't see someone who was frantically striving to please God.
You would see Someone who was confident that His Father was already pleased with Him.
You would see Someone who was so at peace in His heart about that fact that He could turn outward and think about others and their needs.
You would see Someone whose heart burned with compassion for others because He had no need for His heart to be heavy with self-pity.
He knew He was already deeply known and intimately welcome near to His Father at any time of day or night.
He knew His Father's thoughts towards Him were more than the sand on the seashore.
He knew He was the apple of His Father's eye.
He knew He was His Father's "beloved Son."
And His faith in these things never wavered.
What if He lived this way to show us how we could live, if we would just learn to walk by faith and not by sight?
What if we could know that we, too are the Father's beloved sons and daughters?
And what if we could live always knowing that He is pleased with us?
//
His pleasure in us can fuel our joy.
His pleasure in us can give us confidence.
His pleasure in us can free us to serve others in love.
His pleasure in us can give us boldness to come before His throne at any time of day or night.
His pleasure in us can motivate us to follow His lead and radically obey Him.
His pleasure in us is not because of what we do, but because of who we are in Christ.
//
I wonder where we get the idea that we can set out to do anything that God calls us to do without making any mistakes?
I have two children that can walk and run very well.
They have the cutest sideways skip, too.
But the process of them learning to walk was arduous and not without many falls.
I was pleased with them when they took that first step. I was still pleased with them when they fell.
My pleasure wasn't based so much on what they were doing, though it did bring a smile to my face.
My pleasure was in them.
I was taking pleasure in my child trying to walk.
I've seen other children try to walk, but watching my child do it is a whole new feeling.
My pleasure in them motivated them to get back up and try again.
And I wonder... how similar are God's feelings to that natural inclination we have to be pleased at the smallest things our children do, just because they're ours?
His pleasure is in His children learning to walk. Other children try, but His children- the ones He created anew in Christ, bring Him immense pleasure, just because they're His.
We assume that because He is perfect, He expects perfection out of us, but shouldn't One so perfect know that imperfect ones like us will fall?
Oh, He knows it. And He's provided help for us in our failures.
Perhaps our failures are meant to show us that we can't do anything He calls us to do apart from Him.
Loving hands reach out to catch us when we stumble so that we will not fall into hopelessness.
And we learn, like little children, to hang on more tightly to our Father's hand as we step out into the great unknown.
For it is through Him that we learn and grow and become all that He intends for us to be.
It is through Him that we are more than conquerors in this world of darkness.
It is through Christ that we can do all things that He asks of us.
We are not meant to do it apart from Him, and every fall is another opportunity for us to learn to live by His power instead of our own.
His pleasure in us raises us back up to our feet again.
His pleasure in us becomes that which surges through us as new strength.
His pleasure in us emboldens our faith so that we do not give up on that which He has called us to do.
This passage sums it up well:
"The Lord directs the steps of the godly. He delights in every detail of their lives.
"Though they stumble, they will never fall, for the Lord holds them by the hand." (Psalm 37:23-24)
//
So, my friend, if God calls you to the uncomfortable and new, and you find that you cannot do it without failing, you are not alone.
Everyone who grows up in the household of God and is learning to obey Him will make mistakes and stumble many times in the process.
But look up. He tightens His grip when you stumble. He does not expect you to do it perfectly. He just takes pleasure in the fact that His child is learning to walk.
And, like Jesus, we can learn to live out of His pleasure in us, motivated by it, and filled with joy because of it -instead of frantically trying to please Him by never failing (which, by the way, will never happen.)
Are you His? If yes, then you are one He takes pleasure in.
So let your grip tighten on Him knowing that He cannot and will not push you away. Every fall is an opportunity for you to cling tighter to Him and to know His strength flowing through you. <3
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