Some people live to please themselves. They are consumed with pleasure and power. Their favorite word is “I” with very seldom a thought of their own mortality or of one day facing their maker and giving account of how they lived their lives. (Luke 12:13-21)

But there are those who knowing their own mortality and believing in the goodness and severity of God, choose to live their lives in pleasing God. (Romans 11:22) One of the most unique men of antiquity was Enoch. His aim in life was to please God. In God’s hall of faith we find this amazing epitaph concerning his walk with God. “By faith Enoch was taken from this life, so that he did not experience death; he could not be found, because God had taken him away. For before he was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God” (Hebrews 11:5). There is an abundant zest for living and eternal rewards for those who live to please God. And unlike trying to please people, God is really not hard to please.

How do we please God? Realize that pleasing God is not by self-effort or by living a joyless austere life. Many religious people have tried and failed by these means. God’s Word tells us clearly how to please God. “But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him” (Hebrews 11:6 NKJV). Only by faith can we please God.

Faith is the belief that God is real and that God is good. Faith is believing that God will do what is right and what He has promised. God says that the more hopeless our circumstances, the more likely our salvation. The greater our cares, the more genuine our prayers.

Max Lucado in He Still Moves Stones says “God’s help is near and always available but it is only given to those who seek it. Nothing results from apathy . . . Compared to God’s part, our part is miniscule but necessary . . . Write a letter. Ask forgiveness. Call a counselor. Confess . . . Be baptized. Feed a hungry person. Pray. Teach. Go.”

Do you aim to please God? Do something that demonstrates faith. Don’t fake it but do faith it! Faith with no effort is not faith at all. God will always respond to faith. He has never rejected a genuine act of faith. (Hebrews 11) “That if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved” (Romans 10:9-10).