Pleasing to His Sight: Living to Make God Happy

I sat on the couch reluctantly watching my cursor blink over the 'send' button. I was preparing to open a can that I had closed many years ago. A can I wasn't sure I wanted to open, but knew I had to; God charged me with this task.

As I read over my message my chest tightened. The fear of rejection overcame my body. I was sure I'd be ignored, laughed at, or even screenshot. I knew that in this moment I was far too late. There was no way to reconcile; no way to fix this. But as I stared at the cursor, still hovering over 'send' all I could think about was making God happy. I simply wanted to follow through with the task He assigned me to the night before. The task I thought I spent most of my day thinking about. I couldn't figure out why, but I knew what, and God simply wanted me to execute. So I did. I pressed send, exited out of my browser, and called it a night.

God's strategy never ceases to amaze me. In this moment, I knew that He was trying to make right a situation that I turned wrong six years ago. "Make God happy," I whispered to myself as I listened to my favorite gospel songs in an attempt to stay motivated. It was all I had to inspire me to not shut down my computer and go to sleep like I desperately wanted to. To actually press send on the message I composed 35 minutes prior, and spent 10 minutes re-reading. This message was the last bit of happy that I could offer God on this day, and I refused to end it without doing so.

Sometimes we feel that making God happy requires us to fill big shoes. We think that in order to please Him, we must be Jesus—or as close to Him as we can be. We aim for perfection and get discouraged when we don't quite make the mark. We feel the pressure of living up to seemingly unattainable standards. We have the burden [of not being perfect] weighing on us constantly; usually causing us to turn away from the pursuit, to spare us of our failure. The truth is, it's not as hard as it seems. God isn't asking for perfection, He is asking for an honest attempt. That's why the heart matters.

So I whipped open Facebook, wrote an apology message that I knew wouldn't be received, and exited out. My deed was done. My tears have been shed. That was enough obedience for one day.

On this walk, I'm realizing that you cannot control anyone's response to what God's commanded you to do. You cannot force them to understand your walk, or help you along the way. You can not require them to agree with what God has told you. All you can do is listen to God, be unashamed in doing so, and work diligently to be pleasing in His sight.

God doesn't tell us to be perfect beings; in fact, He knows we never will be. He simply tells us to be obedient to Him. To follow His direction. To listen to His commands. To trust in His way. To talk to Him. To honor Him. To walk in the power that He's given us. To repent when we've fallen short.

So when you live your day-to-day lives—responding to daily conflict and dealing with unavoidable frustrations—do so with God in mind. Before you react think about whether or not God would be pleased with your reaction. Before you comment, or speak, or judge anyone/anything think about what God would say to you. Think about whether He would frown or delight in you. Care less about how others will perceive you, and focus on how God will. Because your #1 goal each day, shouldn't be to feed your own ego, but to make God happy—always, in all ways.  

I sent the Facebook message about two months ago; I still haven't received a response. That doesn't bother me, though. Instead, I'm hoping that, more important than anything, I received a smile from God.