When your ways please God

 

The foundation scripture for the thought I share in this short piece is a popular scripture verse in Prov. 16:7 - When a man’s ways please the Lord, He makes even his enemies to be at peace with him.

Firstly, the believer is faced with the all-important question of how to please God. Secondly, some people think that pleasing God simply means obeying Him, and once you obey God, then He will automatically make your enemies love you and be at peace with you. How interesting! Of course obeying God is very important but it just doesn’t end there and I will show you why as you read on. Looking at the scripture more carefully, and connecting it with another popular scripture in Heb. 11:6 But without faith it is impossible to please Him, it makes a whole new meaning.

Fundamentally, it is impossible to please God without faith, and this faith sometimes may go crosswise of human logic, while at other times, faith appears to be arrogant. This is the reason many people would rather prefer not to exercise their faith. Faith in a sense is the ability and willingness to take responsibility with the word of God till it causes the intangible to materialize for you. The key word here is responsibility – this includes abiding by God’s word, standing your ground against enemy attack and putting the enemy in his rightful place.

We could make do here with a brief illustration. Suppose you had a child who does everything you instruct, but is never able to stand up for himself/herself, how pleased would you be with this child? Certainly, you will still love the child, but you did wish he/she could stand up for himself/herself. How about when you now find other children far younger than this child pushing the child around? You did be disappointed and worried, not because the child is not obeying you, but because the child is not taking responsibility. This is the true state of some believers, and it is why God is not exactly pleased with them. To put it more rightly, if you are not standing and taking responsibility in faith, then you are not really pleasing God, even though He still loves you.

The enemy will not choose to be at peace with you willingly, as the second half of our text says, it is the exercise of your faith that will subject the enemy to that state. There is a famous story of one of the late generals of the church from Nigeria, Arch Bishop Benson Idahosa, who at a time announced that the meeting of council of witches and wizards scheduled to hold in Benin City Nigeria where the Arch Bishop lived would not hold. The council replied him saying not even God could stop the meeting, and the Arch Bishop’s response was audacious – he responded that God will not need to stop them, seeing that he Benson Idahosa was on the scene. Eventually, the meeting did not hold according to the word of the prophet. This is taking responsibility not only for yourself but for others, including your city and nation.

Now, taking responsibility doesn’t have to be as dramatic and sensational on a national or global scale as the story I narrated of the Arch Bishop, it can just mean holding the forte in your life, family or small sphere of influence, and putting the devil on the run. By such demonstration of faith God is pleased.

It is time to rise up in faith, put cowardice aside, and let your father be pleased with you through the demonstration of your faith, and by using all the arsenals of God at your disposal to put the enemy under subjection.