Be Careful About Wanting to be Pleased
Psalm 100:5 says of Yahweh, "His lovingkindness is everlasting and His faithfulness to all generations."
He is full of mercy and goodness and generation-blessing, covenant-keeping faithfulness.
Yet, dear Christian, we seem too often to wrongly think that everything and everyone must align to please us, or all is loss and everything is a failure.
"Give me what I want and no one gets hurt."
This is painful idolatry and must be replaced with sincere worship.
Yet, you forget about the goodness and lovingkindness and faithfulness of God.
Do you think that God will not come through for you, meet you in your deepest need and pain? Give you what is good? Serve your very soul heaven’s delights and satisfy?
Tell me, you who have lost what you most cherished, and do not have what your soul desires, you who sit in despondency due to your loss…
Or
Tell me, you who sit with your full cup and overflowing blessings and smirk, or scowl, or say you do not have enough of this, that, or the next thing,
Tell me, who are you living for? Who do you love most? Don’t tell me Jesus because you blame Him, you judge Him, and by your deeds you deny Him.
You who have painfully lost and you who have blindly gained, your problem is the same: prideful idolatry.
Get on your knees and plead for mercy. Do not rest until you have assurance that all is well and will be well because you have Christ. And if you only had Christ He would be more than enough.
Gillian Welch beautifully sang, "We cannot have all things to please us, no matter how we try, til we all come to Jesus, we can only wonder why."
So even now in this moment in time, anticipate future moments where you will need these words. Let the Word of God renew your mind, transform your heart, serve your soul what it needs most: a Christ-exalting view of all things.
So be careful about wanting to be pleased, and instead, seek to please God.
When your mind needs to be renewed go to God and His Word, and be transformed. Believe it, Yahweh's "lovingkindness is everlasting and His faithfulness to all generations."
SDG