How can we live a life that is pleasing to God?

To live a life that is pleasing to God, we must realize that we are born into this world a sinner who is in a broken relationship with the Father. To reestablish that relationship, God sent His Son Jesus Christ to be a propitiation through faith for the remission of our sins (Roman 3:25).  We have been bought for a price…the precious blood of Jesus (1 Peter 1:19). It is a gift that when accepted places us back in right standing with the Father.

When the Holy Spirit leads us into a relationship with Jesus Christ, we begin to realize how we were an enemy of God (Romans 5:15).  Our heart then becomes filled with a sense of gratitude (1 Thessalonians 5:18) because we have been welcomed back into His Kingdom. 

The more we are grateful for this life, the more we should desire to surrender the life we are living and begin to obediently follow Christ. Surrender and obedience are the greatest forms of worship we can give back to God (Romans 12:1-2).  Jesus, the greatest example on how to live, didn’t do anything that He didn’t see the Father do (John 5:19).  He came only to do the will of the Father (John 6:38).  In the same way we are to follow His example and His directives.  Jesus said, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son and The Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you. And behold I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:18-20).

To live a life that is pleasing to God, we must set our minds on things above not on things below (Colossians 3:2).  Like Stephen in Acts 7, we should look to God and draw closer and closer to Him through the Holy Spirit. As we purpose to follow Christ, we will sin less and less (1 John 3:9).

Getting to know Christ requires spending time in His presence. Through a life of total abandonment and absolute trust we learn more about him and in turn more about ourselves. We learn to recognize that still small voice of the Holy Spirit who says…“you were created for this…”; “go and help this person…”; “go and give to that person, you can trust me more and more”.  As we purpose to follow the Holy Spirit’s direction, we’ll notice that our personal goals and objectives begin to take on less meaning and instead we desire to do things that delight the Father (Psalm 37:4).

Living a life pleasing to God is losing the life we were born with (Ephesians 4:22-24); being crucified with Christ (Galatians 2:20);  having Christ live in us (Galatians 2:20) and living for the one who loved us first (1 John 4:19).  This is accomplished through complete and total surrender to the leading and guiding of the Holy Spirit. Through reading and studying the Bible, prayer, and surrounding ourselves with other true disciples of Christ (Proverbs 12:15) we are able to develop the wisdom and discernment which are critical for living a life that is pleasing to the Father.    

¹https://storage.cloversites.com/wakarusamissionarychurch/documents/59one_another_scriptures.pdf