Heaven's Fridge

I learned something new that blew my mind: God delights in us. I know that shouldn't have blown my mind but I get so wrapped up in my sins and failures that I forget that holiness is possible in this life and to what end we were created. We were created for good works and God works in us to will and to work for his good pleasure. In this, He also doesn't expect us to be perfect or the best at what He calls us to. As Kevin DeYoung writes, "If God only accepted perfect obedience from his children, the Bible would have nothing good to say about Job or David or Elizabeth or anyone else except for Jesus."

In one of my favorite books, John Piper writes:

Sometimes people are careless and speak disparagingly of all human righteousness, as if there were no such thing that pleased God. They often cited Isaiah 64:6 which says our righteousness is as filthy rags. It is true–gloriously true–that none of God’s people, before or after the cross, would be accepted by an immaculately holy God if the prefect righteousness of Christ were not imputed to us (Romans 5:19; 1 Cor. 1:30;2 Corinthians 5:21). But that does not mean that God does not produce in those “justified” people (before and after the cross) an experiential righteousness that is not “filthy rags.” In fact, he does; and this righteousness is precious to God and is required, not as the ground of our justification (which is the righteousness of Christ only), but as an evidence of our being truly justified children of God. (Future Grace, 151)

It is possible, by God's grace, to please Him through our acts of devotion and service. Many scriptures point to actions that believers can take that will be pleasing to God. DeYoung sums it up by saying, "Basically whenever you trust and obey, God is pleased."

I have this picture in my mind of God being my father and I bring Him a really crappy drawing of a castle or  a landscape where the sun is the upper right hand corner and is inexplicably wearing sunglasses, and God sees the love behind the drawing and doesn't care about the quality of the drawing. He delights in it, like someone might delight in a Monet and He takes the drawing and puts it on His fridge and He smiles every time He sees it. He doesn't hang my sins on His fridge, He hangs my attempts to serve Him and love Him and He cherishes them.

 "Lord, search my heart, create in me something clean. Dandelions, You see flowers in these weeds."