The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe
"More Pleasure"
Part 4 - "The Double Pleasure"
"The Lord taketh pleasure in His people."
(Psalm 149:4)
God made human beings to serve as the spiritual dwelling place of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. "Christ in you, the hope of glory" declared the Apostle Paul of a reason for being that overwhelms the heart and boggles the mind upon any serious consideration…
"Because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying Abba Father" (Galatians 4:6).
This serves as the prime confirmation of our contention that we bear the capacity to please our Heavenly Father's heart more than He pleases ours. God's first view of every believer focuses on the the presence of Christ in us. It cannot be otherwise, considering He ever and forever acts according to "the eternal purpose which He purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Ephesians 3:11). The purpose involved a sacrifice of sorrow, suffering, forsakenness, and death that surely means wherever the Lord Jesus is, the Father's primary gaze will rest upon Him. This includes every Christian's heart, wherein dwells the Spirit of Christ (Romans 8:9).
Indeed, find the most faithful and the most unfaithful born again believer on the planet in any moment. Ask our Father what He would say about either. His first response would be, "My Son dwells there." This does not discount the response of believers to Him. Our trust and obedience matters much, far more than we can imagine. Thereby, we either please or displease Him. However, it remains true that the fact of Christ's presence forever abides as primary in the Father's sight. Certainly, He not be pleased by our thoughts, attitudes, words, and deeds if we stray from Him. He remains pleased in the presence of our Savior, which does not, will not, and cannot stray from us. "I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee" (Hebrews 13:5). He is pleased with the Lord Jesus, wherever He finds Him, and forever pleased because He finds Him in us, again, the very reason for which He made us. "I will dwell in them, and walk in them" (II Corinthians 6:16).
Little wonder then that we can please God more than He pleases us. He finds a double pleasure in believers, first and foremost in the Lord Jesus' presence in us, but also in the unique son or daughter birthed and enlivened by the Holy Spirit in salvation. Christ will eternally shine forth in every believer in varied and singular aspects of "the hope of glory." Mary will glimmer differently than Martha, David than Moses, John than Paul, you than me. Each of us bear particular potentials to please God's heart no other can fulfill. "The very hairs of your head are all numbered" declared the Lord Jesus of our uniqueness, which makes possible our particular capacities to please the heart of the Father as He sees Christ shine forth in so many and varied ways (Matthew 10:30). Yes, primary in the pleasure God finds in every Christian is the Christ He sees in all - "accepted in the Beloved" (Ephesians 1:6).
If it be possible and if it be true that we bear the capacity through Christ to please the heart of God more than He pleases ours - the double pleasure - then let us determine to give all to the pursuit. His' is a heart we have all so grieved, and a heart that made possible so wondrous a salvation. How can we do other than to forever "walk and to please God" by seeking to shine forth with the light of Christ to Him? (I Thessalonians 4:1). May it be said of us all, as it was long ago said of Enoch…
"He had this testimony, that he pleased God."
(Hebrews 11:5)
Weekly Memory Verse
I will praise Thee, O Lord my God, with all my heart: and I will glorify Thy name for evermore.
(Psalm 86:12)
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