To live for God is to be nourished by the nectar of heaven.

As the days unfold toward Christ's return, an ever increasing number of voices will clamor for our attention. There will be church programs and prayer strategies, activities and powerful movements. Signs and wonders will splatter the world, dazzling the religious mind of man.

Remember also, the days ahead shall increase in pressure and troubles. Jesus warned that, because iniquity abounds, the love of many shall grow cold. Do we not know too many whose heart, once hungry for God, is now stricken dead with cold love? Angry Christians: the world is full of them. We must not assume it cannot happen to us.

Additionally, we live in a world exploding with sensory stimulants, addictions, that bombard the flesh with relentless temptations. Ours is a world replete with intoxicating pleasures and dissipating distractions. Regardless of our battles, it is in this very environment that the Father has predestined we be conformed to Christ.

Yet, what does it mean to become Christlike? It means we chose to live for one purpose: to give pleasure to God. To accomplish this, we must be intimately acquainted with that in which His soul delights. Jesus always chose to give God pleasure, even in the midst of conflict and cruelty. Thus, we must redeem our encounters with the difficulties of human existence. Let us identify trials as opportunities to render true worship to God. Our Christlike spirit toward adversities gives great pleasure to the Father.

Let us settle the issue: We were created not only by God, but for Him as well. As it is written, "Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created" (Rev. 4:11 KJ).

The key to lasting happiness and real pleasure in this world is not found in seeking gratification, but in pleasing God. And while the Lord desires that we enjoy His gifts and the people to whom we are joined, He wants us to know that we were created first for His pleasure.

A "Lay Worker" For God

To His neighbors, Jesus was just a carpenter's son. Yet, before Jesus' public ministry began-before there were any miracles or multitudes-there was a quality in Christ that, even as a carpenter, swelled the heart of God with pleasure. From His youth, the compelling vision of Christ's life extended far beyond merely becoming another good man. Even His sinless adherence to the Law, as magnificent as that attainment was, existed far beyond Christ's highest goal. The all-consuming obsession of Jesus Christ was to give pleasure to His Father always.

Thus, could Jesus have heard a more wondrous utterance than that which He heard at His baptism in the Jordan? At the sound of the Father's voice, the heavens opened and the river of God's pleasure flowed down to His Son: "Thou art My beloved Son, in Thee I am well-pleased" (Mark 1:11; see also Luke 2:52).

Remember, Jesus was still a "lay person" when the Father spoke to Him. He had not yet entered public ministry. Beloved, I am awed as I consider this reality: It was Jesus' life as a tradesman, a blue collar worker, which increased the Father's bliss!

Jesus did not need miracles or great sermons to touch the Father's heart. While accomplishing common, every day tasks, Jesus touched the heart of God.

Likewise, to give pleasure to God is the purpose of our existence as well. Jesus' ability to please the Father while working a secular job tells us God is looking for something deeper than theological degrees and correct doctrine. He is looking for our sustained and focused love. And in this, we also can please Him. Whether we are housewives, secretaries, or auto mechanics, in God's eyes, true ministry is not in what we do but in what we become to Him.

The Invisible God Sees Our Secret Heart

Jesus said it often: The Father sees in secret. Amazingly, it is from this secret world of our hearts that God's heart seeks pleasure. And when He finds a soul who, as an act of worship, gives of himself or perseveres in prayer or suffers patiently or loves purely, with such the Father is well pleased; indeed, He is drawn to such as these.

Let us ponder deeply: We can bring pleasure to God! What a wondrous privilege! Since it is possible, let us not grope in darkness, but specifically isolate that one way above all which touches the heart of God. Paul said that God "was pleased to reveal His Son in me" (Gal. 1:15-16).

To set our goal to reveal Christ is to arouse God's pleasure at its highest levels. No one, nor any thing, brings pleasure to the Father as does seeing His Son. Every time we obey Jesus, giving Him access to this world, we please God. Each time Christ forgives or loves or blesses through us, the heart of God finds pleasure in our lives.

Jesus did only the things He first saw His Father do; He lived to give pleasure to God. Let us also seek to know how, in every situation, we may reveal Christ. For in the love between the Father and His Son the river of God's pleasure flows.

Oh God, the thought that my life may bring pleasure to You is so high, I can barely believe it. Lord, look upon me as Your workmanship; create in me that which will most glorify You. Make my life an aroma of thanksgiving that ever brings pleasure to Your heart.