Day 2

Inner Narrative Pleasing God

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, my rock and my Redeemer. (Psalm 19:14)

Our thoughts about ourselves can give the Lord pleasure. We can honor Him in everything – including our view of ourselves and our circumstances. Let’s try to set a firm biblical foundation as we proceed in these meditations. To refresh our memories, here is my paraphrase of Psalm 19:14:

Let the words of my mouth and my heart’s deepest thoughts give Your presence pleasure. (my paraphrase of Psalm 19:14)

Today I want to reinforce a simple, taken for granted, truth: It is possible to please, or displease, our Creator. Our Scriptures teach that both our actions and the subjects of our meditation can give God pleasure. This is a biblical reality we are called to embrace.

Additionally this is really true: We can learn to please God. It is not an impossible task. In fact, Paul taught that it is possible to discern what is pleasing to the Lord.

trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord. (Ephesians 5:10)

This includes our thought lives. Obviously we can make progress in this. In addition, Paul wrote:

Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things. (Philippians 4:8)

Those types of meditations please God.

I can’t believe there is anyone reading this who does not want to grow in their relationship with God. Part of developing this relationship is seeking to give Him pleasure. We are to aspire to be pleasing to God. Remember, this deals with both what we do and what we think. We read of this here:

Therefore we also have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him. (2 Corinthians 5:9)

Praise God! We can learn to please the Lord in the way we live and think. Our innermost thought lives can be guided by our desire to delight God.

In contrast to this, we can displease God. The first reference to humanity’s thoughts and motives being displeasing to the Lord is in Genesis 6.

Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. (Genesis 6:5)

What was God’s response?

The Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. (Genesis 6:6)

Humanity’s wicked acts began in their evil intents.

Our Messiah encouraged us to look beneath the surface to the thoughts and intentions of our hearts. Allow me to offer four examples from our Rabbi’s instruction. Here they are given in alphabetical order from the letter, “A”: adultery, anger, anxiety and avarice. Most likely you are familiar with the following verses but please take an extra few seconds to read and consider them.

Adultery:

but I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. (Matthew 5:28)

Anger:

“You have heard that the ancients were told, ‘You shall not commit murder’ and ‘Whoever commits murder shall be liable to the court.’ “But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court …” (Matthew 5:21–22a)

Anxiety:

“So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. (Matthew 6:34a)

Avarice:

“No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.” (Matthew 6:24)

It is easy to agree that Jesus put an emphasis upon our inner lives. He warned us about and prohibited certain thought patterns.

There may be justified, righteous, beloved, delightful children of God who still meditate on things that are not pleasing in His sight. Am I exaggerating when I say that those who indulge adulterous thoughts, or nurse anger, or give place to anxiety or avarice are not pleasing God in these meditations?

Before I continue let me refer you to 1 John 1:9-10.

If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His word is not in us. (1 John 1:9–10)

To continue, the Psalm we’ve been using as a pattern prayer is a plea to give God pleasure in our thought lives. No matter how whole we may be I am convinced that we can all please God more than we do. Even in the weakness of my desire I can testify that I want to please Him more. I’m sure that I’m not alone. This is normative for those who love the Lord.

Pray with King David.

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, my rock and my Redeemer. (Psalm 19:14)

Is this longing a trap? It could be if we are not grounded in the realities of the Gospel. However, trying to learn to please God does not produce bondage if we start off with the foundation of already being pleasing to Him. We must be steadfastly convinced of the relational benefits derived from the Messiah’s sacrifice. Let’s call these benefits “foundational favor.” If we are trying to act so as to warrant foundational favor we have not yet believed the good news as we ought.

Some mistakenly say that it is impossible to please God any more than He is already pleased with His children. They may be mistaking foundational favor with the development of their relationship with God. After all, John wrote that there is a phenomena described as “grace on top of grace.” (John 1:16b TLV) It is possible to have already received heaven’s favor and then act in such a way as to provoke further manifestations of favor. It is possible to be foundationally pleasing to God and act in a way that is pleasing in His sight.

Even Jesus grew in grace. It is written that He grew in favor with God.

And Jesus kept increasing in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men. (Luke 2:52)

He always did the things which pleased the Father.

“And He who sent Me is with Me; He has not left Me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to Him.” (John 8:29)

Didn’t the Messiah already please God? Of course He was pleasing to His Father. Yet, Jesus actually did that which was pleasing to God. In like manner, Paul wrote those who were already pleasing to God that they could become discipled in that which pleases God more and more. It is possible to further please the One we already please.

This is a high ambition.

Therefore we also have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him. (2 Corinthians 5:9)

Pray: Lord disciple us to think and speak about ourselves in a way that increasingly pleases You.

I think my paraphrase of David’s psalm is appropriate here.

Let the words of my mouth and my heart’s deepest thoughts give Your presence pleasure. (my paraphrase of Psalm 19:14a)

Let’s please God.