Pleasurable Smiles...

"For the LORD takes pleasure in His people;

He will beautify the humble with salvation"

Psalm 149:4 (NKJ)

To take pleasure in someone, means to derive joy, delight and enjoyment in everything that individual does.

When a husband says about his wife that "he takes pleasure in her"; he is in fact saying that he enjoys every single aspect of who she is. He takes pleasure from her eating, sleeping, talking, reading or simply just sitting still. This is what I believe God means when He says in the verse above that "For the LORD takes pleasure in His people."

God takes takes pleasure in everything we do (apart from sin), if we do like we are doing it for Him and doing it as an act of worship. He takes pleasure in our waking up, our eating, sleeping, singing, dancing, working, relationships and much more.

How can we make our daily activities an act of worship, that will bring pleasure to God and cause Him to smile?

When we engage in our daily activities or tasks, we must have God very much in mind. We can have at the back of our minds questions such as "Does this activity, for example eating, bring worship to God? Does the food I am consuming and how I am fueling and looking after my body, the temple of God, bring pleasure to God? Does it make God smile"?

What common, yet daily tasks can you start doing differently today, with God in mind?

To further learn how our daily activities can bring glory to God, we can learn from the life of Noah, Genesis 6. Noah's life was a life that brought pleasure to God, His life and the activities he engaged in, glorified God and made Him smile.

In the days of Noah, God could not find anyone on the earth who pleased Him. Man was consistently engaged in evil doings. It was so bad that God was sorry He ever made them, and said He was going to wipe man out. However, Noah, found favour with God. Genesis 6: 5- 8 (please read for emphasis). God found pleasure in Noah for he was the only blameless man living on earth at that time as we read in Genesis 6:9 which reads "This is the account of Noah and his family. Noah was a righteous man, the only blameless person living on earth at the time, and he walked in close fellowship with God". God decided to start creation all again, and to start with Noah. He could not wipe out Noah, for he lived a life that pleased God. Can God say the same thing about us? Can God intervene in some crises happening because we are present and the grace He has over us helps to rectify the situation? (selah)

Here are five acts of worship we can learn from the life of Noah. Acts of worship that will bring pleasure to God and cause Him to smile.

We make God smile when we:

• Love Him supremely: Noah loved God, when no one else did as we read in Genesis 6:9 reads "This is the history of the generations of Noah. Noah was a just and righteous man, blameless in his [evil] generation; Noah walked [in habitual fellowship] with God. This is the most thing God wants from us. God made us to love us and longs for us to love us back. God wants to have a daily and continuous walk with us. He wants us to have a continuous and engaging relationship with Him, through conversations; from the moment we wake up to the time we go to sleep. God wants a relationship with us, a one to one relationship. He made us to love us and longs for us to love Him back. God is more interested in our relationships rather than our sacrifices as we read in 1 Samuel 15:22 "But Samuel replied, “What is more pleasing to the Lord: your burnt offerings and sacrifices or your obedience to his voice? Listen! Obedience is better than sacrifice, and submission is better than offering the fat of rams.




• Trust him completely: To trust God is to have faith in God. It is impossible to please God or make Him smile if we have no faith, as declared in Hebrews 11:6a which reads "And it is impossible to please God without faith..." By faith Noah built the ark ( a ship) in preparation for rain, even though there had never been any rain! Hebrews 11:7a reads "It was by faith that Noah built a large boat to save his family from the flood...". Today, how many of us will trust God totally and completely with every area of our lives, even when He says to do things that makes no sense whatsoever! How many of us will do that? In what areas of our lives do we need to trust God completely, to bring Him pleasure and to make Him smile?
  



• Obey Him wholeheartedly: The dictionary defines wholeheartedly as - fully or completely sincere, enthusiastic and energetic. Noah obeyed God wholeheartedly, by following specific instructions. He did everything God commanded, as was confirmed in Genesis 6:22, which reads "So Noah did everything exactly as God had commanded him.". When God tells us to do something, regardless how insane it might seem to us, our duty (out of love and obedience to Him) is to simply obey. We must be instant in our obedience. Instant obedience will teach us more about God than a whole lot of bible school will. Also, I believe (and have experienced) that instant obedience will further unlock understanding which will not be given to us otherwise. Delayed obedience, is still disobedience.
  

• When we thank and praise Him continuously: When the flood subsided and Noah embarked from the ark, his first act of worship on dry land was to offer a sacrifice of burnt offerings to God, and God was pleased, as we confirmed in Genesis 8: 20 - 21a, it reads "20 Then Noah built an altar to the Lord, and there he sacrificed as burnt offerings the animals and birds that had been approved for that purpose. 21 And the Lord was pleased with the aroma of the sacrifice... It pleases God when we express our thanks to Him, for all that Has done, doing and for that which He has promised to do. As the Psalmist writes in Psalm 107:1, we must "Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good! His faithful love endures forever".
  

• When we use our abilities: After the flood, in Genesis 8: 15-16, God said to Noah, "Be fruitful and increase the earth". God was telling Noah, to enjoy all that God has given Him and live a life He designed for Him. God wants us to get on with our life according to his Will for us. He wants us to do the things we have been specifically designed to do. He takes pleasure in it all. When we use our abilities, for His glory and to help those around us, it brings Him pleasure, it makes Him smile. If God created you with the gift of a writer, then write. If God created you to be a runner, then run to His glory. If God created you to be a tailor then sew the best designed pieces there is!
  
  

So, are you living a life that is pleasing to God? Does your everyday actions worship and make Him smile? What area of your life or activities you engage in, can be displayed as an act of worship to God?

I encourage us all to live out the very essence of our lives as an expression of worship to Almighty God. We should endeavour to make our every activity be impregnated with the knowledge of God, causing those activities to flow in seamless praise, and adoration to Him. For this will bring Him pleasure, make Him smile, and His glory will shine through us, whilst we make him famous as we live out the intricacies of each and every day.

Much love

Remi

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Attractive Magnets...

The dictionary describes a magnet as "an object that is surrounded by a magnetic field and that has the property, either natural or induced, of attracting iron or steel.... and a person, a place, an object, or a situation that exerts attraction".

It goes further to describe magnetic as: Endowed with extraordinary personal power to excite the feelings and to win the affections; attractive; inducing attachment, or to exert a strong attractive power or charm: a magnetic personality.

To become a magnetic individual means to heighten the power of attraction within us. As children of God, one of our aims and purpose should be to become a magnetic and attractive individual. Not for our own physical needs and desires, but more so to attract people to the nature of God, that they hopefully see in us; the light of God that shows and emits through us.

We will not have the opportunity to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ to all. However, the very nature of God that emits through us will be a catalyst that awakens minds, gets them asking questions and finally bringing to reconciliation to the father.

A great way to become a magnetic and attractive individual is by showing Love through compassion.

The dictionary explains compassion as thus: the humane quality of understanding the suffering of others and wanting to do something about it.

The nature of God's love is indeed wrapped up in compassion. We are taught in John 15:12 to love one another just as God expressed the ultimate act of compassion by sacrificing his only son to save and redeem mankind, reconciling us back to him.

John15:12 reads "This is My commandment: that you love one another [just] as I have loved you".

John 3:16 reads "For God so greatly loved and dearly prized the world that He [even] gave up His only begotten (unique) Son, so that whoever believes in (trusts in, clings to, relies on) Him shall not perish (come to destruction, be lost) but have eternal (everlasting) life".

As we know, Love is God and God is love. When we show God’s love, we are effectively giving those at the receiving end, a sample of what it feels and means to be loved by God himself. This is because, if we ourselves walk in love, God who is love is in us as we are taught in 1 John 4:16. This love is what the world will see and experience when we express it through compassion.

1 John 4:16 reads "And we know (understand, recognize, are conscious of, by observation and by experience) and believe (adhere to and put faith in and rely on) the love God cherishes for us. God is love, and he who dwells and continues in love dwells and continues in God, and God dwells and continues in him".

The ultimate expression of love, through compassion is the act of sacrifice, such as we learn from John 3:16. We must learn to sacrifice some of our time, treasures, words, physical comfort and much more, to show the true nature of compassion and to help someone, somewhere along their way.

The world cannot see God, but they surely can see love expressed through acts of compassion and sacrifice.

The act of compassion goes a long way and leaves a deep rooting, lasting impression in the hearts and souls of man. It gets minds thinking and souls wondering the reason by the act and this in itself can provide a pathway for God to get connected to a lost soul.

In this day of the “me” society, it is difficult to stop along our way to show love or indeed compassion as most are striving to “get theirs". (Dreams, goals, desires and much more).

Yes, that's all well and good, but along the way, as we walk and work towards our destiny, we must stop at certain points and actively engage in the act of what it means to truly love our brothers and sisters. We must display the nature of Christ which is love; the curtain rod from where the very essence of life hangs from.

So today, I encourage us all, that as we go along our way, let us actively express the true colours and nature of God’s love, through compassion. Let us remember to love one another as Christ loved us and remember that sometimes sacrifice is required on our part to help make a difference in someones life.

Have a wonderful week, showing and displaying the very colours of love and compassion; making God famous along your way.

Much Love
Remi Banjo

***pictures by photobucket***