Day 251: Proverbs 11-12; 1 Corinthians 15:35-58

"It is really much easier to please God than to please people" writes E.M. Bounds. At first, that statement seems counter-experience. It raises a question instantaneously: Then why don't people just please God first? Paul answers that question: "The sting of death is sin..." (1 Corinthians 15:56). "Genuine righteousness leads to life, but pursuing evil leads to death" (Proverbs 11:19, CSB). So, folly rules in the life of the one who chooses his/her own way over God's way. And, there is no way to please everybody anyway, but folly makes that a certainty. On the other hand, God's Word makes it plain how we may please Him...it is all spelled out. So, the next sentence that Bounds writes is true: "Moreover, we can know when we please Him." Yes, he points to God's Word and specifically to His commandments. All of this begs the question: How do we do what's easier? Bounds says 'supplies of grace enable us to obey.' Paul says, "Thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ' (1 Corinthians 15:57). The simple answer to it all is that God has made a way through the consecrated life that is filled and empowered by the Holy Spirit. So, do the easier and better thing...let God do it in your surrendered will...please God.

Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, be steadfast, immovable, always excelling in the Lord’s work, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not [never] in vain. (1 Corinthians 15:58, CSB)