Episode 2277 - Lesson 3 - Thursday Jan. 16 - A worthy goal

Under the umbrella of God’s mercy and mediation, God takes pleasure in even the smallest positive response to His love. Through the One who alone is worthy of love and is Himself perfectly righteous, each one of us can be counted righteous and counted among God’s beloved who will live with Him in perfect love for eternity. This is the great hope of the redemption, which involves Christ’s work for us in heaven. But, you might wonder, can this include even me? What if I am not good enough? What if I am afraid that I do not have enough faith? Read Mark 9:17–29. How does God respond to the man in the story? How much faith is enough faith? The disciples could not cast out the demon; all hope seemed lost. But Jesus came and told the father, “ ‘If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes’ ” (Mark 9:23, NKJV). And the father tearfully replied,“ ‘Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!’ ” (Mark 9:24, NKJV). Notice, Jesus did not say to the man, “Come back to me when you have more faith.” Instead his cry, “ ‘Help my unbelief,’ ” was enough. Without faith, it is impossible to please God (Heb. 11:6), and yet Jesus accepts even the smallest faith. And by faith (through the mediation of Christ), we can be pleasing to Him. Through faith and because of Christ’s work on our behalf, we can respond in ways that please God, similar to the way that a human father is pleased when a child brings him a gift that is otherwise worthless. Thus, we should follow Paul’s counsel to make it our goal to “be well pleasing to” God (2 Cor. 5:9, 10, NKJV; compare with Col. 1:10, 1 Thess. 4:1, Heb. 11:5). And we should ask God to transform our interests to include the best interests of those whom we love, and to expand our love so that it reaches out to others. “Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honor giving preference to one another; not lagging in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord; rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayer; distributing to the needs of the saints, given to hospitality” (Rom. 12:10–13, NKJV). If God accepts us through Christ, how much more should we accept others? What light does the command to love your neighbor as yourself (Lev. 19:18, Matt. 22:39) and the golden rule to treat people the way you want to be treated shed on this idea?