Is it more important to please God or to be pleased in Him?

I’ve been pondering over that question for the last couple weeks. Growing up in church, I think I’ve always assumed the former: We are to please God. We are to please God through our reading the word, going to church, giving offering, good works, etc. But I’m coming to realize that there is danger in that.

The danger is that it could become pharisaical. What I mean is that pleasing God can become an external work. Since God is pleased when I do the acts that would please Him, as long as I’m doing those things, it really doesn’t matter where my heart is. But that is exactly what Jesus called upon the Pharisees to repent of!

“These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me” Matthew 15:8

What if the question had been, “Are you pleased in God?” instead? Do you find joy in God? Do you delight to be in/with Him? Are you happy in Him? So, rather than asking, “Are you pleasing God?”, what if the question we are asking is, “Are you pleased in, with, and by God?”

That is a very different question, isn’t it? In the former, in trying to please God, I’m making efforts to DO things that will please Him regardless of my heart. But in the latter, in trying to be pleased in Him, my heart MUST be engaged.

But there is danger in the latter also. In trying to be pleased in God, we could become epicureans and live for pleasures only. We could be having an illicit affair and because that is what brings happiness to our heart, we feel justified.

To synthesize, we know that it is important for us to please God. Many verses speak to that: Galatians 1:10, 1 Thessalonians 2:4, Hebrews 11:6, etc. But it is equally important to be pleased in God!

What if these are not two different concepts, but one? What if I put the two together – God is pleased with us when we are pleased in Him? 

In other words, the (best) way to please Him is for us to be pleased in Him! When do I feel the most joy from my children? When they obligatorily spend time with me or display that they find their joy in me?

I’m not quite done thinking through the implications of this thought…. But here’s a biblical ground for it.

“May my meditation be pleasing to him, for I rejoice in the Lord.” Ps. 104:34

Why would God be pleased with my meditation? Because I rejoice (am pleased by) in Him.

If I’m following this line of thought, then I should be asking, “What will help me find the greatest joy in God?” “How can I find more pleasure in Him?” “What takes away from my satisfaction in God?”

Meditate on this. I will, too.

PH