Weekly Message
IS GOD WELL PLEASED IN YOU?
And the Holy Spirit descended in bodily form like a dove upon Him, and a voice came from heaven which said, "You are My beloved Son; in You I am well pleased." (Luke 3:22)
As a child, I remember an older relative visiting my family one holiday from California. Before leaving, the relative gave me a twenty dollar bill (which was good money back then). I asked him why he gave it to me and he said, "for being a good boy." Of course I was like most other kids, I had my good and bad moments. But I now realize that he was acting on a measure of faith that I would live up to that characterization. In other words, I would have plenty of opportunities in life to be deserving of that money. But realistically, there would be some times when I did not meet the standard too.
In the passage above, God, the Father, spoke to Jesus, His Son, and told Him that He was well pleased with Him. Of course I had read this passage many times, but lately it dawned on me that much of what we would praise Jesus for had not actually happened yet. He had not turned water into wine yet. He had not given sight to the blind man yet. He had not raised Lazarus from the grave yet; and yes, He had not gone to Calvary and died on the Cross for us yet. Accordingly, God was surely using His omniscient powers to see down through the tunnel of time, and know that Jesus would do all of those things, and many more things, well. God's knowledge of things extends to small and great things; and to all the divisions of time; the past, present, and future alike. Perhaps it can be said that God was stating His love based on facts before they were complete.
Since God is omniscient, He knows how well we will live our lives on this earth as well. And since we have time to end well, we can start from this point forward making sure that the remainder of our days are lived according to God's will. In other words, God can be pleased with us now, because He knows how we will conduct our lives in the future.
All of us would love to have God say to us, you are my sons and daughters and in you I am well pleased. If we have accepted Jesus Christ as our Savior, we have taken the first step. And if we try to live according to His will for our lives, we will make it the rest of the way.
