How to please God:
Try this fresh approach

When you read articles about how to please God, a pattern emerges: a list of works you need to do.

But if works can't earn us a place in heaven, how can they earn us God's pleasure?

Yes, it's true Jesus never expected his followers to coast through life. He and the apostle Paul instructed us on how to behave, but at the same time, neither wanted Christianity to be an exhausting competition to measure up.

What makes the difference between striving and serving is our motivation. When you and I want to please God because of our passionate love for him, our good works go from being drudgery to being a delight.

How to please God: A done deal

The first thing to recognize as a born-again believer is that you do not have to earn God's love. It is unconditional and freely given. Love is the core of his being. Catechisms tell us God created us specifically so he can love us.

If you already have God's love and you have all his love, you do not have to struggle to get it nor to increase it. God is already head-over-heels crazy about you. That's a given. Accept that and the freedom it gives you.

Back in the last century when I was dating, I was glad to please the woman I was in love with. It made me feel good to give her jewelry, small gifts, a dinner out in a nice restaurant, cards, and the little kindnesses that made her happy. I wanted to please her because I loved her. As Jesus said, "It is more blessed to give than to receive." (Acts 20:35, NIV)

So it goes with our attempts to please God. When we do them because we love him, these works become a source of joy to us. God delights in blessing us and we delight in blessing him. Love means being generous to your beloved.

God is pleased any time we step outside ourselves. As I have often said, we singles have an habitual self-centered streak from living alone. It takes an extra effort for us to think of someone else first—even God.

So, what pleases God?

If you look at the lists in those articles on how to please God, you'll find things like obedience, having faith, focusing on Jesus, treating God with respect and awe, and doing his will.

Those are all worthwhile tasks, but they become tedious unless they're motivated by love.

Jesus said, “If you love me, keep my commands." (John 14:15, NIV) What are the greatest commandments?

"Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.” (Mark 12:30-32, NIV)

These two simple commands separate Christianity from all other religions. When we live according to them, we please God.

Even though these two orders may be simple, they are not easy. When you're sick or unemployed or grieving a loss, it can be hard to love God. What's even harder is loving your neighbor. Some people are downright unlovable. Some do painful things to us.

How to please God seems too hard when we don't feel like loving him or others.

Enter the Holy Spirit

Anyone who tries to live the Christian life under their own power is doomed to fail. Jesus never meant for us to go it alone. When the apostles were scared as he was about to ascend to heaven, he made a startling promise. He vowed to send the Holy Spirit to live inside each of his disciples, and that includes you and me.

The Holy Spirit is like the battery in your phone. It doesn't work without it. To do the things of God, we need God living within us.

I don't want to love my neighbor. The Holy Spirit empowers me to. I don't always want to obey God. The Holy Spirit helps me resist temptation. The heavier we lean on the Holy Spirit, the more pleased God is with us.

God eagerly wants an intimate relationship with you. He wants to influence your every decision, your every mood, your every desire. When you surrender and let him do that, you please him more than any good deed you could do.

We are called to be different, to be salt and light to the world. Loving others, through kind deeds and sacrifice, is how we shine before unbelievers. We stand out by imitating Jesus.

Good works follow faith. When we have faith, we can't help doing good deeds. As James said, "For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead." (James 2:26, ESV)

So don't get caught on a good works treadmill trying to please God. First love God and your neighbor. Have faith, and God-pleasing works will naturally follow.

What are 'rewards in Heaven?'

The Bible clearly encourages followers of Jesus Christ to do good works. They are a visible expression of the Kingdom of God and flow naturally from our New Birth.

In his book The Sermon on the Mount, R.T. Kendall says God has always appealed to our self-interest to persuade us to do good deeds. Kendall notes heaven contains different ranks. Certainly martyrs for the faith will be at the top, followed by saints who devoted their lives to glorifying God through their service.

Some who believed in Christ but rarely helped anyone may be among the "least" in the Kingdom, Kendall says. It may sound odd, but we all know Christians who have accepted Christ as Savior yet do little besides go to church. Some don't even do that.

The nature of the rewards in heaven is different from rewards on earth. We shouldn't expect a Rolls-Royce, a yacht, mansion, gigantic diamonds, or piles of gold. If those things excite us, we missed the point of serving God. Knowing we pleased him and spreading the gospel will make us "good and faithful servants."

People are hurting and need our help. There's never a shortage of work to be done. When we do it as Christians, bringing glory to God in the process, we can imagine God smiling at our spiritual growth. When we meet him face-to-face, no other reward will be able to match that thrill.

Who is our God, anyway?