Day 17: Live for the good pleasure of His will!

Let’s continue a little on this wonderful subject of the glory of His grace and the ultimate objective: that God may be glorified.

We’ve already looked at Ephesians, chapter 1, verses 5 and 6:

“God has predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He has made us accepted in the Beloved.”

And then, a little further on, again, in verse 12, Paul states the purpose, "that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of His glory." So everything that results out of our trusting in Christ for salvation is intended to be for the praise of God's glory.

Finally, in the Book of Revelation, we have a presentation of the praise and the adoration of all creation - everything that's in heaven, everything that's on earth, everything that's in the seas - they all have one, common, collective utterance of praise and it's so beautifully recorded in Revelation 4, verse 11:

“Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power: [Notice, what's the first objective? God's glory, then His honor, then His power. And how is it brought about? The second part of the verse tells us.] For thou has created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.” (KJV)

What's the ultimate purpose of creation? God's pleasure. Another translation says, "By thy will." We could put it together and say, "For the good pleasure of thy will." There's no higher objective in living than giving God pleasure. That God may find satisfaction in our lives is the highest objective that we can ever entertain. And when we begin to think along those lines, then we are beginning to cultivate God's ways and God's thoughts. We cannot afford to refer everything first to ourselves - "What's in this for me, what will I get out of this?" The question we need to ask is, "Will God be satisfied? Will this bring glory to God?"