Parents?
Siblings?
Elders?
Peers?
Posterity?
Employers?
Spouse?
Church Leaders?
Readers?
God?
Yourself?
In my lifetime I’ve tried to impress all of the above. I suppose each has its time and place for us to please. Then, we find that pleasing others is not as fulfilling as expected. Even pleasing ourselves does not satisfy.
Surely trying to impress God is right. Well, the truth is that we can’t impress Him—at least not favorably. People through all history have tried, doing every imaginable thing to please the gods of their imagination. It doesn’t do a bit of good.
The brightest spot in all human history is that the true God did something about this for us. He did the pleasing—He did the impressing—so we don’t have to. Now we can be free to please Him because we want to, not because we have to.
We weren’t fit to please God, so Jesus pleased Him for us while He was here on earth. When the job of pleasing God for us was done, He said, “It is finished.” He defeated death for us, came back to life, and went back to heaven.
He gives us power—He gives us His Spirit—He gives us the choice to accept His finished work—He gives us abundant life—and He is pleased with us. And that is how we impress God. And that is how we are free to serve others, not impress them.
This weekend, starting today, and the next three days, will you remember what Jesus did for you, and accept it, and invite Jesus into your heart and in charge of your life?
Wouldn’t it be great to please God for the first time?
Now that would be impressive!
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