Beloved Children, Pleasing to God     EPHESIANS 5:1-10Our calling as Christians is to imitate Jesus Christ, but what big footsteps He left! The heavenly Father attested several times in the Scriptures, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased” (Matt. 3:17). How can we possibly live up to that?

Thankfully, the Lord does not expect us to be perfect like Jesus. Knowing that we are encumbered by the weaknesses of our flesh, He sees us as children who are still learning. Just like a mother who rejoices over the her baby’s first steps, so our heavenly Father delights in our early faltering steps of obedience as we seek to walk with Him.

The goal is growth. Once a toddler masters walking, his parents’ delight shifts to more mature achievements like running. As long as we keep growing in our faith, we will never cease learning new ways to please our Father. He loves us and patiently cheers us on at each new level of maturity.

What’s important to the Lord is the bent of our hearts. Amidst all our frailties, failures, and temptations, He sees the desires of our hearts and knows how much we love Him and want to be obedient. Even in our stumbling, He helps us up and encourages us with His Word.

Many of you are far more pleasing to the Lord than you think. If you’re prone to perfectionism, give yourself time to grow. The Father does; so learn to see yourself through His eyes. He’s waiting—not to berate your efforts but to help you develop into the person He designed you to be.

A New House

We abide in him.

1 John 4:13

Do you want a house for your soul? You may ask, “How much does it cost?” Something less than proud human nature would like to pay. It is without money and without price. But you would like to pay a respectable rent! You would love to do something to win Christ? Then you cannot have the house, for it is without price.

Will you take my Master’s house on a lease for all eternity, with nothing to pay for it, nothing but the rent of loving and serving Him forever? Will you take Jesus and dwell in Him? This house is furnished with all you want; it is filled with riches more than you can spend as long as you live. In this house you can have intimate communion with Christ and feast on His love; the tables are well-stocked with food for you to live on forever; in it, when weary, you can find rest with Jesus; and from it you have a view of heaven itself.

Will you have the house? If you are homeless, you will say, “I should like to have the house; but may I have it?” Yes; the key is, “Come to Jesus.” “But,” you say, “I am too shabby for such a house.” Never mind; there are garments inside. If you feel guilty and condemned, come; and though the house is too good for you, Christ will make you good enough for the house soon enough. He will wash you and cleanse you, and you will yet be able to sing, “We dwell in Him.”

Believer, your happiness will be multiplied in having such a dwelling-place! What a privilege for you to live in such a secure dwelling–a place of safety. And dwelling in Him, you have not only a perfect and secure house, but an everlasting one. When this world shall have melted like a dream, our house shall live and stand more imperishable than marble, more solid than granite, self-existent as God, for it is God Himself–“We abide in him.”