Yet God gives us His grace, willingly, no matter what we've done. We come to Him as ragamuffins--dirty, bedraggled, and beat-up. And when we sit at His feet, He smiles upon us, the chosen objects of His "furious love." Brennan Manning
If you would have asked me a few years back, ‘Hey Michael, what does the LORD want from me?’ Well, a few years back, my response would have had a rather long list of things that you’d need to do. Very specifically, ‘spiritual things’ that the LORD would want you to do.
Read your Bible.
Pray.
Journal.
Fast.
Go to church.
Tithe.
Serve.
Evangelize.
Repent.
As you read through that list, you’d be hard-pressed to say anything on that list is bad, and I would 100% agree. Nothing bad in doing any of those things. In fact, each of those activities practiced over a lifetime will help us grow to be a bit more like Jesus.
For me, the problem was not discovered in doing the things on the above list, rather, the problem centered around the question of ‘WHY?’
Why is a hard, dare I say ‘tricky’ question to delve into because ‘why’ begins to explore our motivations.
For me, my motivations in doing any of the aforementioned list was often (not always, but often) rooted in wanting to please God. Now at first sound, that doesn’t sound all that bad, does it? Seeking to please God is a good thing, right? Well, yes… and no.
Here’s what I mean by that. When we think our activity is what pleases God which means He’s then pleased with us, well, we’re wrong. No amount of activity, even the really, really spiritual activity will ever lead to God being pleased with us. Now, if that sounds at all disheartening, well, that is good because you’re ready to receive the good news for Ragamuffins.
Jesus pleased God. And if you are a Christ follower, God is pleased with you because of the FINISHED work of His Son. In other words, because of Jesus in you (and me), God is ALWAYS pleased with us… regardless of our spiritual activity or lack thereof it.
If you’re at all like me, the push back is… ‘Sounds good, Michael, but at the end of the day, we still need to ‘do’ things like read our Bible, pray, go to church, etc.’
Well, let’s return to where we started to see if that response is actually right, dare I say, gospel.
WHAT DOES THE LORD WANT FROM ME?
Funny thing is that the crowds back in Jesus’ day asked him that same question and here’s how he responded:
John 6:29 - Jesus told them, “This is the only work God wants from you: Believe in the one he has sent.”
No list, just BELIEVE in Jesus.
If you believe (have faith) in Jesus, God is pleased with you… God is always pleased with you because He always sees His Son in you.
