Pleasing God

DEVOTION
1 THESSALONIANS
PLEASING GOD
1 Thess 4:1-2
4:1 Finally, brothers, we instructed you how to live in order to please God, as in fact you are living. Now we ask you and urge you in the Lord Jesus to do this more and more. 2 For you know what instructions we gave you by the authority of the Lord Jesus.
NIV

Am I living in order to please God? That is the question. How do I know if that is the case or if I am failing miserable? Oh Paul says those people were so I should take heart and assume I am also? I don’t think so. I think I have to do some self examination along with seeking a confirmation from the Spirit regarding if my life and the manner in which I live it is pleasing to God. How can my life be pleasing to him when I fail to overcome certain temptations? Is the mere fact that I trust him completely enough to be considered pleasing to him? Is the fact that I know I am absolutely without any righteousness apart from Christ enough to be considered pleasing to him? Does knowing I am a nothing more than I sinner saved by grace enough to be pleasing to him. I think maybe that is the whole point. He knows without question no man can live a life completely perfect and fulfill every aspect of the law. He knows for certain that no man could ever be good enough to warrant heaven based on the human effort. So I think just maybe my total trust in him for not only my salvation but for every aspect of my life, my spiritual, emotional and physical life is in fact the way to live in order to please him. And that as I mature as a believer I should be trusting him more and more, rather than slipping into the ways the world trusts in the human effort. As I mature I should have an increasing trust and live a life of greater faith in his ability to save, to lead, to provide and to strengthen me more and more each day I live. As I continue to grow in the knowledge of him and in his grace I need to be more and more the salt, the light and the mirror reflecting him to a lost and dying world. In this way I would be surely pleasing to him. But still I have to believe that is it my faith in him which pleases him the greatest for he has said that without faith it is impossible to please God.