When I see my wife smile, or our children and grandsons smile, my heart swells with joy. Either they are pleased or amused. It doesn’t matter which, I’m happy with their pleasure. However, the goal of my life is not pleasing them, but pleasing God. There is a huge difference and it’s what I will be writing about this week.

Is is possible to please God? Of course it is. In the dark and violent days before Noah and the building of the ark, there lived a man named Enoch. We don’t know a lot about him, but the little the Bible tells says a lot.

“Enoch lived 365 years, walking in close fellowship with God. Then one day he disappeared, because God took him.” (Genesis 5:23–24, NLT)

“It was by faith that Enoch was taken up to heaven without dying—“he disappeared, because God took him.” For before he was taken up, he was known as a person who pleased God. And it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him.” (Hebrews 11:5–6, NLT)

Enoch walked in close fellowship with the LORD. From Hebrews, we see that he believed in and sought after the LORD. You and I can too! We have the presence of the Holy Spirit in our hearts and God’s Word to read and study. If we seek Him, we will discover and enjoy close fellowship with Him. Listen, a man or woman who walks with God in a pleasing way, will be a blessed and joyful person!

This is where the gift of faith that God gives us is so important. Without faith, we won’t seek Him. With faith we believe, seek and find. Faith in God will never disappoint. It pleases God for us to believe in Him, in His mercy, grace, justice, and love.

The word “must” deserves our attention. We not only believe He exists but we believe not in a “god’ but in the God of the Bible, who reveals Himself in Jesus Christ. Further we believe that He rewards those that sincerely seek Him.

Pleasing God is a heart matter and deep love. Our actions are motivated by love of God. “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love.” (Galatians 5:6, ESV) Our faith is a gift from God. It works when love powers it. For example, today talking with a friend we agreed that people who love God give cheerfully.

George Whitfield in his sermon Walking with God said, “Walking, in the very first sense of the word, seems to suppose a progressive motion. A person who walks, though he moves slowly, goes forward—he does not continue in one place. And so it is with those who walk with God. They go on, as the Psalmist says, ‘from strength to strength’ or, in the language of the apostle Paul, ‘they pass from glory to glory, even by the Spirit of the Lord.'”

Finally Enoch was rewarded by being taken into the very presence of God. Many are the rewards of the righteous. The greatest will be seeing Jesus!

• How can you please God with your faith?
• The spiritual habits of worship, prayer, Bible study, giving, and journaling will help you in your pursuit of God.
• In what facets of your life would God be pleased to see you grow in faith?

Peace!