Sunday, February 15, 2009

What Pleases God - Part 7

What Pleases God - Intro Post
What Pleases God - Part 1
What Pleases God - Part 2
What Pleases God - Part 3
What Pleases God - Part 4
What Pleases God - Part 4 - B
What Pleases God - Part 5
What Pleases God - Part 6

Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord
Colossians 3:20

Period. :) This might be the shortest blog entry I've ever had... but there it is. Children - obey your parents. Actually I do have more to write because I believe this verse truly gets tied in with verse 23:

Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men.

To learn at even a young age to have a humble spirit. To be able to submit. To do all things as you are doing it for the Lord --- because He does see what you're doing. He sees your heart and if you're following 'rules' just to follow the rules.... or if you are generously and joyfully following instruction as an outpouring of your love & desire to honor Him... because He says it's pleasing to Him.

Learning to listen and be obedient because we love Him. Putting aside our will - because His will should be first. To put our wants aside and figure out what God wants. To be able to serve. To learn to obey. All as acts of worship to Him who deserves our love and obedience.

Not because the rules are great and to please Him we must meet ____ rules.... because it's not even about 'rules'. Learning to live up to some rules/expectations isn't what is pleasing to God. Having the right heart of humble obedience does. Notice God didn't say, children obey your parents when they tell you about the 10 commandments. Obey your parents about curfew, dating guidelines, appropriate attire & alcohol use. God simply said...obey. Obey, whatever the rule is, to honor your parents as you would honor God. So obviously this verse shows us --- it's not about rules.

So there's a greater lesson here. As adults - if our life is pleasing to God or not can't be judged by any set of rules we do or do not conform to. It can't be judged by the outside. What is pleasing to God is our heart. Motives. All of which gets set right in relationship with Him. Are there commands, 'rules' He gave us through His Word? Absolutely.... but my point is.... they don't come first. Doing them to do them....just doesn't do it. :)

Again it's about the work going on in us. The heart. Learning to submit. To learn to listen. To learn to be obedient. Whether you like it or not. Whether it's your will or not. It's the Spirit's work within us... even at a young age.

3 comments:

Rebekah said...

This is so very true Randi Jo! And it is right on with what I've been reading and studying in His Word lately!

Toia said...

Amen!! Many of us focus on the outside, instead of what's going on inside of our hearts. In everything we do, our motives have to be pure. Thanks for the post. Happy Monday!!

Anonymous said...

As a single parent dad, I often used scripture to my girls. They heard
"Children, obey your parents" perhaps one time too much, as my youngest responded to that one day.

Her little eyes looked up at me and she replied:
"Fathers, do not exasperate your children".

Ouch!

Nice blog. I'll be back.