GOODNESS TO GOD

J. Grant Swank, Jr.


". . .and fulfill all the good pleasure of his goodness. . ." II Thessalonians 2:22


Why are we here? We are here to bring pleasure to the heart of God. All else will disappear. There is nothing that will outlast our providing for the ". . .good pleasure. . ." of God.


Yet we spend most of our spiritual energies attempting to get blessings from heaven. By following Jesus, what can it get me? How can I be healed? How can God give me money to pay the bills? How can I pray long and hard enough to find another job?


And when we do not get our way, we get depressed. We privately complain to our souls that God has forgotten us, is too severe on us, doesn't know what He is doing with us. So we have spent out Christian commitment on ourselves. We have taken the message of the cross and prostituted it for what deity can provide us.


The problem obviously is that we have forgotten why we are here on the earth. How easily our priorities can tumble from God's expectations to our self-lust.


Look at Jesus on Calvary's tree. There you find the Son pleasing the Father. ". .
.obedient even to the death of the cross."


Son saw through Father's will to the close, not reneging, not second-guessing, not whimpering. Jesus knew that He was on this planet for one chief purpose--to fulfill redemption's plan set in place before the world was set in motion. That would fulfill all the good pleasure of Father's goodness.


So it is that we are here to satisfy the Father--". . .fulfill all the good pleasure of his goodness. . ." It is not our goodness for which we are planted. It is for His goodness--His good pleasure.


The believer then finds the cross easy to carry when he turns his aching heart away from his present plight to take in Son upon Calvary and Father upon heaven's throne. In that combined scenario one discovers what Jesus meant when He challenged His own to ". . .seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. . ." In other words,
put as first priority your making God glad.


We look upward to heaven to see there our Sinless Sacrifice. In that is our pleasure. In that is our thanksgiving to Him. In that is our opportunity to make heaven happy.


Concentrate less upon your needs and more upon the happiness you can bring to God. Let go of your list of worries and turn your mind toward what God offered you upon Calvary's tree. Do not fret about tomorrow but look back to Redemption upon Golgotha. Contemplate the cross as it relates to you personally.


The more you take in the price heaven paid in order to set you on the heaven course, the more you will discover that you are here to praise heaven. Thank God. Lift high the name of Jesus. Tell Him now what His provision means to you. Adore Jesus, not your blessings. Worship Jesus, not what He can give you. Bow down before Jesus, not setting yourself up for the next request shot upward.


In this you will come upon ". . .the good pleasure of his goodness. . ."