Ephesians 1:9

NASB – 9 He made know to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He set forth in Him,

NRSVUE – 9 he has made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ,

VOICE – 9 He has enlightened us to the great mystery at the center of His will. With immense pleasure, He laid out His intentions through Jesus,

God Revealing His Story

God has gifted His redemptive purposes through Christ to His will. The mystery included the salvation of both the Gentiles and Jews as partners in the new covenant. Christ dwells within all people. This revealing comes solely from His grace, power, and desire. God wants to share the knowledge of His redemptive goals to accomplish His will to all people that are interested in learning about it. Jesus is the center of His eternal plan. Through His atoning death, resurrection, and leadership, God fulfills His promises and gathers His people into one united body. Everything God planned for salvation is seen to victory through Christ.

REFLECTION CHECKPOINT: What do you understand about the salvation nature of God?

Finding God’s Pleasure

Living in alignment brings out God’s good pleasure, showing that His plans are in a place of His love and goodness. Let’s talk more about this “good pleasure” because our current society has warped the concept of pleasure, at least in my mind.

What is God’s Good Pleasure

The Greek noun that Paul uses here is eudokia (yoo-dok-ee’-ah). It expresses delight, a positive pleasure, favor, or a good intention. It often refers towards God’s grace and His redemptive purposes and towards us. In the Old Testament, it connects God’s delight towards the mercy He gifts to all of us. In the New Testament, it shows up in a few different ways from God’s delight to our good intentions. We see God’s delight in His redemption, the incarnation of Jesus, His choosing of us into His chosen family, and His satisfaction. On our end, it happens through when our good intentions come through the Gospel teachings.

Renewing Our Minds

What does it mean for us to walk in God’s pleasure? How is that a reality for our world today? God delights when we renew our minds. It’s when we can understand the teachings of Scripture and allow those teachings to guide our thoughts, actions, and desires. It’s important that we recognize and acknowledge that some of the teachings and commands were made for a specific time and culture that is not the present-times. There were certain political, historical, and government ideologies that were going on in the back ground that we must be aware of when recognizing the teachings of the Bible, especially the Old Testament. However, we acknowledge, that through Jesus the law was fulfilled. Jesus teaches us that the two greatest commands to follow is to love God with all of our heart, mind, soul, and strength and to love our neighbor as He loved us. We acknowledge that our salvation and forgiveness is not based in following the Law of the Scripture, but through the sacrificial death of Jesus that atones for our sins and brings us before God directly. Through God, we find His grace and mercy that allows us to stay in a right-standing relationship with Him. The Law can help us understand what is of God and what’s not, but it is not the final determination for our standing with God.

Walking with the Holy Spirit

We can also find God’s pleasure through walking in the Spirit. This happens on a moment-by-moment basis, but it’s grounding on the concept on if our behavior goes to please God. The fruit that Scripture tends to refer to is the “Fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23)”, which are: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. The goal is to make sure all parts of our life produce these things in the world so that we can full embody what it means to reflect God’s character to the world.

Focusing on Holiness

Another way we can find God’s pleasure is by pursuing holiness. This can bring up some trauma for people if we’re being real. The holiness/purity culture that shaped the church for a long time created a lot of repressed feelings, condemnation, frustrations, and judgment across both Christians and non-Christians alike. It’s important that when we talk about holiness, we focus on how we turn away that things takes our focus off of what God has called us to do. That we don’t replace God’s leadership with anything of this world whether it be different items, life circumstances, influencers, political ideologies, and more. There are so many things of this world that are trying to get our attention, and it’s important that we don’t fall for the things that are misaligned with God’s will. This does not mean that all the things of the world are bad. Far from it. Ecclesiastes 8:15 says this: “So I decided it was more important to enjoy life because the best thing people can do in this life is to eat, drink, and enjoy life. At least that will help people enjoy the hard work God gave them to do during their life on earth.” (ERV) The things of this world can be good for us, but it’s when we let them overtake our desires, thoughts, and minds that it starts to be a problem. God should be guiding everything we think, say, and do, and nothing of this world should get in the way of this.

Sharing Gratitude

We can find God’s pleasure through expressing gratitude. Gratitude keeps us in a thankful and content mindset. It’s easy to yearn for and covet the things and lives that other people have, while forgetting about what it means to embrace the life that we have currently. Even when it’s not where we want it to be, God can show us how to be thankful for the smaller things of life. Those are the things that we may take for granted are not a reality for others. These can include things like having food in the fridge, lights on in the house, clothes in the closet, and a roof over our heads. It can remind us that we still have some good things going for us, while also reminding us that we can be frustrated that not all people are met with these some basic necessities. It keeps our complaining to a minimum and allows us to challenge that energy into fighting for those that don’t have these necessities and have been pushed out to the margins.

Do Good Works

Speaking of that, another way that we can find God’s pleasure is to do good works for those around us. Be generous with what you have, hospitable to the stranger, and just at all times. This will look different person-to-person and it’s not a competition to figure out who can do it the best. We must have the mindset of an intentional want to help out those around us. We don’t need to do it because we follow the law or rules that says we must, but we do it in a way that reflect God’s care for His creation. Whether it’s providing resources of any type for someone in need, providing a home or a place of rest for someone who’s struggling, or working with that person to find systems that we will listen to their needs and help them. Whatever way it is, we do it to reflect the character of God to the world.

Be in a Community

One of the last ways we can find God’s pleasure is to stay in community. Communities are so important nowadays given the rise of the individualistic mindsets. Humans were not made to try and live this life alone, so we must attempt to stay in community with each other. To find people that will encourage us, care for us, and correct us when we mess up. We don’t want people that do this for selfish reasons or for a savior complex, but people who genuinely want the best for us in this world. That can be incredibly difficult nowadays, but those people exist. All this year you have heard me talk about struggles I’ve had with friendships, and it’s been hard to navigate the complexities of all this. However, it is possible. Through everything, I’ve been able to see who my real community is. Who still sticks around through adversity, pointing out flaws, and working to ensure that we are navigating life in the best way we can.

Obviously, there are more ways that we can find God’s pleasures in this world. The goal at the end of it all is to not replace God as our leader and savior with the things of this world. Allow yourself to grow close with God and see how God will guide you through the complexities of our current world.

REFLECTION CHECKPOINT: How can you find God’s pleasure in this world? Is it through one of the ways mentions or is it something completely different?

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