CE 1 YEAR: 6 God’s Happiness

Week 6

God’s Happiness

God made children with a burning desire to please their father. That same desire is in the heart of every child of God. Pleasing and not displeasing our Father is one of the most powerful motivations of the Christian life.

Displeasing your Father

God the Father is a person who has feelings. And your life is so important to Him that you can actually affect how He feels. Because He loves you, you can make Him sad or glad. As you will read below, the Bible is clear that we can please God and make Him glad. Therefore, the opposite is true, and we can displease our Father and make Him sad. For example, the Bible warns us not to grieve the Holy Spirit in us (Eph 4:30). When you grieve God’s Spirit, you make God sad.

It is important to understand the biblical truth that God is never angry with you (see Week 15: God’s Compassion). When you sin, He feels compassion for you and is sad because sin hurts your life. God has already forgiven you for everything. But this does not mean He ignores your sin. Jesus shared His opinion on the people in seven churches in the Revelation (chs. 2-3). He was honest about what pleased or displeased Him about their lives. And He would be honest about the same in your life.

How do we know if we have displeased our Father? Our conscience will tell us. God gave us a conscience to help us know when we are pleasing Him and when we are displeasing Him (Matt 5:23-24; Acts 23:1; Rom 2:15; 2 Cor 1:12; 2 Tim 1:3). Grieving our conscience and grieving the Holy Spirit are the same thing. Our conscience is a primary way that the Holy Spirit “speaks” to us (Rom 9:1). Sometimes our conscience will defend us against the false accusations and criticisms of people (Job 27:5-6; Rom 2:15; 1 Pet 3:16; 1 John 3:21). But other times it will tell us we are doing something wrong.

This is why the Apostle Paul said he constantly worked hard to maintain a clear and guilt-free conscience (Acts 24:16). A good conscience tells us we are pleasing God. A bad conscience tells us we are not.

Pleasing your Father

For all these reasons, the Bible tells us to make it our goal in life to please God (2 Cor 5:9; Rom 12:1; 14:18; Gal 1:10; 1 Thess 4:1; Heb 13:21). This is why we are encouraged to study the Scriptures to learn what is pleasing to the Lord (Eph 5:10).

What does it mean to please our Father? Most Christians underestimate its meaning. Does it just mean He is not angry with us? Does it merely mean He is appeased? No! Pleasing God means to give Him pleasure and make Him happy!

Unfortunately, the Greek words often used in the NT for pleasing God (areskō, euarestos) are sometimes translated with the word “acceptable” (Rom 12:1, 2; 14:18). But in ancient Greek these words often referred to someone who wanted to do something pleasing, not merely acceptable. Even in our own experience, when someone pleases us it gives us pleasure and makes us happy. Your goal in life can be to make God glad.

Think about that Christian. Your actions can give God pleasure and joy. The Bible says the Lord experiences delight and pleasure in His people (Ps 149:4). Of course, God blesses you. But did you know that you can bless God! This is especially important because much of what He sees on Earth grieves Him (Gen 6:5-6). But you child of God can be someone who gives Him joy.

Do you remember how proud God was of Job? He even boasted about Job to the Devil (Job 1:8). Surely He had a smile on His face when He did it. The OT prayer that God’s face would shine on us simply means that He would smile at us (Num 6:25; Ps 4:6; 80:3). Like Job, we can make God smile.

And isn’t it obvious that God greatly enjoyed watching Job’s life? Especially since he embarrassed, disappointed, and frustrated the Devil so much! (Job 1:9-11; 2:4-5). Like Job, your Father in Heaven is constantly watching you because He gets a great deal of pleasure and joy from all the things you do for Him and others. God’s favorite hobby and most enjoyable entertainment is watching His sons and daughters do good (3 John 1:4). There is nothing or no one else on Earth to make Him happy. God’s greatest joy is seeing us love Him, because so many people in the world hate Him and love and serve the Devil.

Is there anything better in life? To give pleasure to God because of what you do? Nothing is better than that! And nothing will give you more pleasure! If you will think about the joy you are giving God as you serve Him and others, it will give you joy. Believing this may be the greatest source of happiness and pleasure in your life.

How do we please our Father?

Your earthly father may have been difficult to please. As a result, you may think your new Father is the same. Far too many Christians believe that God is generally displeased with them. Is it hard for you to think you often make God happy? Christian, you give God more joy than you can imagine.

How can you know this? Because of what the Bible says pleases God. We are told that you will receive an eternal reward from God for just giving another Christian a cup of cold water! (Matt 10:42). If He is going to reward you for this, you know it pleased Him when you did it. And if He is pleased with merely giving someone a drink of water, think of all the other ways you serve people. Jesus said whatever you do for another Christian, you are doing it for Him and it pleases Him (Matt 25:40). Your Father is much happier about your life than you probably imagine.

Remember, He knows how difficult it is to trust and obey Him on this Earth. He recognizes that we live in world that is controlled by the Devil and constantly tempting the sinful nature we were born with. Holiness is hard in this life. Therefore, anytime we say no to sin in such a sinful world gives God a reason to rejoice.

It is tempting to think that our good deeds are not good enough to please a holy perfect God. But even God cannot expect more from us than our best. That’s all we can do. We cannot be perfect, but we can do our best at whatever we are doing, and it will please God (Col 3:23-24; 2 Tim 2:15). This is how we settle our conscience that we have pleased God. We know we have done the best we can with what we know and what we have.

What are some other things the Bible says give God joy? It delights God when His servants prosper (Ps 35:27). He is delighted when we revere Him and put our trust in His love (Ps 147:10-11). God says that simply thanking Him for things is a sacrifice that truly honors Him (Ps 50:23). It pleases God to see you give in secret or pray without anyone else knowing (Matt 6:4, 6). Every good thing God sees you do in secret gives Him joy! We can please God with everything in our life (Col 1:10).

Even the simple act of spending time with God gives Him pleasure (Matt 6:6; Ps 104:3). Do you have children? Do you remember the first time they opened their eyes and looked at you? Or the first time they tried to communicate with you? Didn’t it send a thrill through your heart? Did it matter if they made complete sense or their words were stated perfectly? No! They didn’t even have words, but just made sounds. And it gave you so much joy! Just a glance from the eyes of your newborn son or daughter made your heart beat faster. Why? Because God your Father is the same way. He put that in you. Being thrilled with your baby’s desire to talk to you, or even look at you, is exactly what your Father experiences when one of His children spends time and effort to pray, praise, and study Scripture.

Finally, we must understand that God is not pleased with us simply doing the right thing. God loves a cheerful giver, not one who gives grudgingly (2 Cor 9:7). Whatever we do, God wants us to do it with all our heart, not half-heartedly (Col 3:23-24). It is not enough to serve God with righteousness, but He wants you to serve Him with peace and joy also (Rom 14:17-18). You will read more about pleasing God with your feelings in Week 26 “The Spirit’s Joy.”

Practical Application: Is there anything in your life that is displeasing your Father? Spend some time with God to search your conscience. If you realize there is something, then determine to stop it out of love for Him. And thank Him for His constant and complete forgiveness and compassion for you.

In your small group meeting this week, share praises and prayer requests and then discuss these questions:

1) What do you think about the biblical fact that your life and actions have an effect on God?

2) What is a way we can know that we have displeased God?

3) What does it really mean to please God?

4) What is one reason that God is constantly watching your life?

5) Why would pleasing God be the greatest source of pleasure in your life?

6) Do you think it is hard to make God happy? What does the Bible say?

7) What was most meaningful to you in this chapter? Why?