On Thursday evenings my Wife and I attend a meeting in a home with some other couples in a our church. We always eat a great meal, have a wonderful desert, and share about what the Lord is doing in our lives.
This has turned into the highlight of our week.
Last night we had a very interesting discussion about works versus faith, but what I'm writing about is the question that started off the conversation.
"How do I know if I'm pleasing God?" Or "How do I know what I should be doing to please God?"
We wondered around talking about obeying the commands of Christ, Advancing the kingdom of God, and many other things we can do. But that's all doing. The summary of the whole conversation was this:
Like a father and a son, there is nothing we can do to make The Lord love us more, and nothing we can do to make the Lord love us less. We need to make sure that we are not doing things to earn our salvation, because we can't.
I would add to this that while we can't effect weather God loves us or not, we can bring God pleasure or displeasure. We need to make sure that our every action isn't displeasing to The Lord. As James chapter 2 says, If we have true faith Christ, the resulting works will be the proof of that faith.
The very fact that the person questions weather or not they are pleasing God, says a lot to me about where their faith is. Would a person who wasn't desiring and trying to please the Lord even think of the question, let alone become paralyzed with questions? I would say that God IS pleased with this person's desire to please Him.
2 Corinthians 5:9 & 10 says:
"So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad."
Since James tells us that we are saved by faith, we know we will not be punished in this judgement, therefore it would follow that we will be rewarded for the things we've done in our lives that please God. I f our goal is to please him, and we are mindful of this goal with every action we take, and we take those actions in faith, God is pleased.