Our kiddos have firmly planted themselves in the “why” era. You know the season—Why are we going to church? Why are we eating dinner? Why aren’t we having pizza? Why are we having pizza? Why are you going to work? (If you think I included too many examples here, you’re getting the point.)
And inevitably, at the root of all their why questions is just one answer.
Think about it: The question, “Why are we having pizza?” will eventually lead to “Because God is a good God who loves to give good gifts.” (What other answer could there be when pizza is on the table.) And if you give a few more mice some cookies[1] (let the reader understand), eventually you end up with the answer: Because God loves you and wants you to glorify Him for His goodness.[2]
Now at this point, the parent (me in this scenario) is about to face the ultimate question of reality. Yes, the original topic was pizza—but since theology is “the study of God and all things in relation to God,” as the great and late theologian John Webster said, the possibility of pizza leading to thoughts about God is certainly not off the table.
Here’s the ultimate question: Why should I seek to glorify God?
The catechumen responds: “Because it’s our chief end!” A great response, truly. And just as any parent is technically in the right to tell their kids to obey “because I said so,” this reason is sufficient for us in relation to God as well. We should praise God because it’s why He created us—it’s what He told us to do.
But, biblically speaking, and what I find to be immensely devotional, is one additional thing that can be said. Behind the call to glorify God because it’s our purpose lies an even more relational motivation to glorify Him.
Here it is: We should seek to glorify God because we want to please Him.
Focusing our attention on the pleasures of God reframes the whole pursuit! We don’t praise God merely because He told us to. We praise Him because in Christ God has become our Father and we love to see our Father rejoicing.
As with any affectionate language about God, though, we must distinguish what we do and don’t mean by pleasing God.
The Eternally Happy God
Before anyone might think that pleasing God means trying to appease an otherwise upset deity or tiptoe around a sleeping bear, let me remind you: Our aim in seeking God’s pleasure is to seek the pleasure of our Father, who is eternally pleased with us in Christ!
God does not and cannot change. He is eternally turned toward His people in Christ. That is a fixed truth.
We seek to glorify God—to bring Him good—not because He needs some good that He doesn’t already possess or that anyone could contribute to the fullness of His goodness, but because our hearts desire the things which He rejoices in.
His desires, His will, His pleasure becomes our purpose. And in our very pursuit of God’s pleasure, God rejoices. He has actually told us so!
Why else would He say to us in His Word: “The Lord takes pleasure in those who fear him, in those who hope in his steadfast love” (Ps. 147:11), and, “Whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him” (2 Cor. 5:9). These verses and countless others remind us of what God delights in, for the expressed purpose of us seeking to please Him!
His very nature is to be the eternally happy God.[3] When we walk in the path of obedience, we are wading in the streams of His delights. The streams exist whether we walk in them or not; again, you cannot change God. But when we walk in His ways and seek His ways carried out in the world, we get to enjoy the streams of delight and participate in His unchanging joy.
The reason we obey, the reason we praise and glorify God, the reason we do all things is because He is our friend—and we long for Him to delight in His creation, in His people.
Pleasing God as Participation in His Delight
“Pleasing God” is accommodated language. It is to help us understand, from a creaturely perspective, how we relate to God. When we act in ways that are pleasing to God, we are not changing God—we are living in accordance with His will and desires.
Just as pleasing a friend here on earth would mean that we’re living in ways that are in accordance with the friendship and not contrary to it, so pleasing God is living in a way that accords with His desires.
So, while God does not change, we see the invitations throughout Scripture for us to walk in the pathways of His delight. God truly relates to His children in ways that they experience as pleasure and delight. The Christian whose heart has been transformed by the goodness and grace of God seeks nothing less than to live in the light of his Father’s smile.
To please God, then, is not to earn His favor, but to live in the good of a friendship He has already established. Friendship delights in the other’s good, and true friendship requires participation in the good of the friend. We don’t contribute to His goodness or happiness; He is goodness and happiness itself! Yet, we can participate in it. As we walk in accordance with His will, we participate in His delight, seeing His name and His fame extend to the ends of the earth—because He has become our joy.
Glorifying God through obedience does not increase God’s pleasure; it deepens our experience of God’s already-settled pleasure. We can feel God’s pleasure through obedience.
God does not stand by, cold and distant, waiting to see if we will earn His favor. His heart is eternally turned toward mercy, and His delight is to communicate Himself ever more fully to those who walk according to His will (John 14:21, 23).
So, in whatever you find yourself doing today—eating pizza, answering a child’s endless questions, laboring unseen—do you know that your Father delights in you already? Do you walk in the paths of His pleasure? Or are you seeking to appease a God who you mistakenly believe is otherwise distant from you?
[1] Our kiddos are toddlers if you didn’t pick up on it yet.
[2] Not every good gift leads naturally to worship—even pizza believe it or not. But Scripture insists it ought to (Psalm 145).
[3] 1 Tim. 1:11