Daily Devotional

A Ministry of the Kerwin Baptist Church

November 15, 2018

by Pastor Hawtree

I AM PERSUADED THAT HE IS ABLE:

TO DO WHAT PLEASES HIM (part 1)

Galatians 1:15 But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb, and called me by his grace, 16 To reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among the heathen; immediately I conferred not with

“WHEN IT PLEASED GOD”
That is the key to it all isn’t it? Does it please God? Paul explains that everything that God had done in Paul’s life was pleasing to God. That does not mean that everything God does is pleasing to us, but that it pleases God. I am sure that Paul did not enjoy being blinded on the road to Damascus. But it pleased God. There are some things that God has done in my life that I did not enjoy. I am sure that you could testify of the same. What is best for us, however, is that God does what He pleases.

Paul says first that it pleased God for Paul to be born. Paul calls it “separated me from my mother’s womb”. We all know that a thousand things can go wrong during the birthing process. Some of you may be familiar with that first hand. Paul said that it “pleased God” to keep him alive. I think of the many thousands of babies that never made it through that process. I have two siblings in heaven because my mother had two miscarriages. But for some reason, it “pleased God” for me to make it through a difficult birth process, and to survive and grow and live. There have been several occasions over the years where I have spent time thinking about whether I would have a brother, sister, or one of each. I have thought and pondered why I made it and they did not. Why do I get to be married, have children, serve the Lord, and live life? Why did they go straight to heaven, and God chose me to stay behind and be “separated from my mother’s womb”? The only reason I can come up with is that “it pleased God”.

We are not here on earth for our pleasure. We are here to fulfill God’s pleasure.

* Philippians 2:13 For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.

May we stop for a moment today and thank God for doing what He pleases in our life. May we apologize for the times we have fought against it, and once again submit ourselves to whatever God pleases to do in our life