We are made for his pleasure

“Because of his love God had already decided that through Jesus Christ he would make us his children – this was his pleasure and purpose.” (Ephesians 1:5 NEV )

We will never get to the bottom of this: that God made us for his pleasure. We are much more likely to think of God as someone to obey, revere, and not offend. Our natural tendency is to think that God is out to get us. We walk on eggshells around him. We imagine him at best disinterested in our lives, and at worst, as one waiting to pounce on us over our next misdeed. But to gain pleasure from us? To have created us for his own joy is beyond us. That, by the way, is one reason why I know this is true. Something this wonderful could only be something God revealed to us; we could never have come up with this on our own.

Just what is it about us that brings him pleasure? First off, we are like him. He looks at us and sees himself because he made us to reflect his image. We have a heart, a will, emotions, and a moral conscience. Because of this, God can relate to us and communicate with us. God can have fellowship with us, in other words, and this is one of the main reasons we were created. Plus, we know from examples of men and women in the Old Testament that this fellowship can take on all the typical characteristics of human relationships – arguing, bargaining, cajoling, forgiving, even wrestling (God and Jacob – Genesis 32:22-32) appears to be a part of the human/divine relationship and something in which God takes pleasure or he wouldn’t indulge in it.

This is why we receive so much pleasure when we worship God outright through prayer, meditation, or music. We are doing the most important part of what we were meant to do. David’s greatest joy was to meditate on the law of God day and night.

But don’t leave out the rest of our lives that can be lived out as an act of worship. Paul encourages us to do everything we do to the glory of God (1 Corinthians 10:31). He wouldn’t have suggested this if it weren’t possible. That would mean that a host of activities and interests commonly thought of as “secular” could take on the quality and function of worship in our daily lives. And in all of this, God takes pleasure.

Try and live today within the reality that you are bringing God pleasure. We started out that way without doing anything, so consider how living with that consciousness can affect your choices, thoughts, and actions.