we make it our goal to please God

we make it our goal to please God

2 Cor 5:9

⁷ For we live by faith, not by sight. ⁸ We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord. ⁹ So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it.

Rom 14:18

¹⁷ For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, ¹⁸ because anyone who serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God and receives human approval.

Eph 5:10

⁸ For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light⁹ (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) ¹⁰ and find out what pleases the Lord. ¹¹ Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. 

Col 1:10

We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives,^[e] 10 so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God

1 The 4:1

As for other matters, brothers and sisters, we instructed you how to live in order to please God, as in fact you are living. Now we ask you and urge you in the Lord Jesus to do this more and more. 

We learn the following from the above verses

1)  we make it our goal to please God

2)  For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, because anyone who serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God and receives human approval.

3)  Now we are light in the Lord. Live as children of light⁹ (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth)  and find out what pleases the Lord.

4)  We are to live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God

We are to fix our eyes on what is unseen and eternal

We are to fix our eyes on what is unseen and eternal

2 Cor 4:18

¹⁸ So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

2 Cor 5:7

⁷ For we live by faith, not by sight. ⁸ We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord.

Rom 8:24

²⁴ For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? ²⁵ But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.

Heb 11:1

Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.

We learn the following from the above verses

1)  We are to fix our eyes on what is unseen and eternal

2)  For we live by faith, not by sight.

3)  But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.

4)  Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.

Our momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far out-weighs them all

Our momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far out-weighs them all

2 Cor 4:17

¹⁷ For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.

Psalm 30:5

⁵ For his anger lasts only a moment,
    but his favor lasts a lifetime;
weeping may stay for the night,
    but rejoicing comes in the morning.

Rom 8:18

¹⁸ I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. ¹⁹ For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. 

1 Pet 1:6, 7

⁶ In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. ⁷ These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.

We learn the following from the above verses

1)  Our momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far out-weighs them all

2)  God’s favor lasts a lifetime

3)  We consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.

4)  We may have to suffer grief in all kinds of trials which have come so that the proven genuineness of our faith -of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.

We are being renewed day by day

We are being renewed day by day

2 Cor 4:16

¹⁶ Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.

Psalm 103:5

² Praise the Lord, my soul,
    and forget not all his benefits—

⁵ who satisfies your desires with good things
    so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

Isa 40:31

³¹ but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.

Col 3:10

⁹ Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices ¹⁰ and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. 

We learn the following from the above verses

1)  We are being renewed day by day

2)  God satisfies our desires with good things so that our youth is renewed like the eagles

3)  Those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.

4)  We have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.

God made His light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ

God made His light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ

2 Cor 4:6

⁶ For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,”^[a] made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ.

Psalm 18:28

²⁸ You, Lord, keep my lamp burning;
    my God turns my darkness into light.

Job 29:3

³ when his lamp shone on my head
    and by his light I walked through darkness!

Psalm 97:11

¹¹ Light shines^[a] on the righteous
    and joy on the upright in heart.

Psalm 112:4

⁴ Even in darkness light dawns for the upright,
    for those who are gracious and compassionate and righteous.

John 1:5

⁴ In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind.⁵ The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome^[a] it.

Acts 26:18

I am sending you to them ¹⁸ to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.’

We learn the following from the above verses

1)    God made His light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ

2)    You, Lord, keep my lamp burning;
    my God turns my darkness into light.

3)    By His we walked through darkness

4)    Light shines^[a] on the righteous
    and joy on the upright in heart.

5)    Even in darkness light dawns for the upright,
    for those who are gracious and compassionate and righteous.

6)    In Jesus was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome^[a] it.

7)    God has sent us ¹⁸ to open others eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God