Is God Well Pleased?
I really want that “well pleased and beloved child” endorsement from God. You know the feeling if you’re a parent, grandparent, proud aunt, uncle or friend – and you love that one so much that you can’t help yourself. You exclaim: “That one’s mine! I am so proud of him/her.”
In Matthew 17:5, we hear the second time when God’s booming voice declares: “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased. Listen to Him.” This time it was at the transfiguration of Jesus. The first time it was at Jesus’ baptism by John the Baptist when Father God’s booming voice declared from heaven: ““This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” Matthew 3:17
We take after our Heavenly Father. He was a proud Papa and wanted the world to know He was proud of His boy. It was sort of like His birth announcement. He flung one colossal star in the sky to let us know that He was giving us mere mortals the STAR of the show!
With all my heart I want to hear: “You are My beloved daughter in whom I am well pleased” because I have brought God so much pleasure with my life. Those words about Jesus were obviously an endorsement by God the Father for His Son. But as we hear it again, hear it as an endorsement by God over OUR lives. Imagine if God announced you as “My beloved son or daughter.” The fact is we are His beloved children. We are not His beloved slaves, or servants, or employees. We are His beloved children!
And here is the challenge for us: “Is our life measuring up to the last part, “with you I am well pleased”? We literally need to think of each action that we take during our day and ask ourselves, “What is God saying about me?” Is He taking pleasure over us with our actions and when we acknowledge Him, when we visit with Him, when we choose the fruit of the Spirit during our day (love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control) and those times we put others before ourselves?
I have a feeling each time He says the same thing about us as He did His only Son: “I am well pleased.” And when we fail and even sin, He is still saying “You are my beloved child” but He reminds us that we can do better. Daily, we should strive for hearing those words to us: “You are my beloved son or daughter. I am well pleased with you.” I want to make Papa God proud. You, too?