to please His Heavenly Father

ENTRY #2 - Christ Suffered and Died TO PLEASE HIS HEAVENLY FATHER.

As I stated in my last entry, I am going through John Piper's The Passion of Jesus Christ and reflecting a little on each of the reasons he lists for Jesus dying for me, and well, you, too!

This second reason he died was to please His Heavenly Father! The most striking thing about this reason to me is the mention of the "paradox" of the New Testament, or the fact that God pours out wrath, yet loves like no other. The suffering of Jesus was due to the pouring out of wrath for all of the sin of the world, yet the reason for this is love. God loves all of us, as we are His creations, and wants for us to have a way to come to Him in obedience and submission. Obedience and submission are just two of the reasons Jesus went through with His fate of dying on the cross for our sins!

Obedience. Doing what you're told. Submission. Not thinking twice about it, or questioning the one directing you. I believe the two go hand in hand. They're both so hard to follow through on though, if we're really honest.

I have always been one who likes things my way and I usually can figure out how to get things done that way. I have trouble trusting other people, since I have been hurt way too many times in my life. As an adult I still struggle with things that went on my childhood, things that I don't want to drudge up necessarily, but things that really do influence who I am. I've always had to be a go-getter and be the one who made sure I was taken care of. In this, I find that it is extrememly difficult for me to be submissive. I am used to figuring everything out for myself.

This attitude in me needs some altering. I need to remember that God may have given me the brains and wits to figure things out, but I HAVE to look to him and obey what He is telling me. Sometimes I won't be able to figure things out because sometimes God wants to teach me something through the process of waiting on His solution. I have to learn what it means to submit to Him!

I suppose giving up some of my tendency to just get things figured out by myself could be somewhat of an offering to God. I think it would please Him if I would just love Him enough to give up the little stuff, and in all reality the big stuff. If I keep Ephesians 5:2 in mind, which says, "Christ loved us and died for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to the Lord," then I think that in the times where I want to be self sufficient, I can remember that Christ loves me, and I never could have done for myself what He did for me!