Day Four: Impressing Jesus

There is always talk out there about how to please the Lord.  Pleasing or impressing someone has never been a hard one for me to figure out. You simply obey them, serve them, or listen to them...and most will be pleased with you.  (I know...I'm not saying this happens a lot these days, especially in WalMart).

I always wondered how you could impress Jesus.  Being an overachiever (to a fault), I naturally assumed that as long as you work harder, sacrifice more, and sin less, then Jesus would have to be impressed!
But is He?

The Pharisees taught us how NOT to impress Jesus.  They were the Perfectionists at obedience.  They were the Dudley Do-Rights of the Bible.  Everyone was jealous of their "sinless" presence....everyone except Jesus.    
Perfectionism never impressed Jesus, because, well, it's a lie.  No one is perfect but Him...and anyone who tried simply became more of a sinner because of their pride and arrogance.   

Nope - striving for perfection will NEVER impress Jesus.

What does?
In Matthew 8, a leader told Jesus that He didn't have to travel to heal the leader's servant, but he had enough faith that as long as Jesus said the word, the servant would be healed.  Verse 10 reads, "When Jesus heard this, he was amazed and said to those following him, “Truly I tell you, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith. And his servant was healed at that moment."   The word "amazed" here means to "be filled with admiration, to be pleased."

This passage teaches us that the one way to impress Jesus is to HAVE GREATER FAITH!  

Jesus loves when we have Big Faith, and ask Big Requests!
And this changes the whole Journey for me....and for my fast. 
If I don't have to impress Jesus with "perfect obedience," then I don't need to strive so hard at being perfect, like making all the right decisions, identifying all my sins, or even nailing this fast.  

Not that it's ok if I go ahead and eat that ham pizza.  (I want to!)
I'm not fasting FROM pizza to please Jesus with my abilities.
I'm fasting FOR greater faith in what I'm praying for, and that pleases Jesus.
And I BELIEVE that my greater faith can actually move the hand of God!  Do you?  You should, because He loves you THAT much.  The Father would never give you a stone when you ask for bread! (Matthew 7:9)

So, when I resist pizza, it drives me to ask God for more...more faith, and more of His hand in my life!  
But if I slip up, it's ok, because the very next day I can get RIGHT BACK to my fast, because what's important is that my fast is driving me to greater faith, not perfection.

So what are YOU fasting FOR this season?  Is it something that requires great faith?  
I would encourage you to Dream and Ask God for bigger things.  He loves that!  He's not afraid of your biggest request!

Then use your fast each day (no matter how you did yesterday) as a tool to drive you to deeper prayer, allowing you to focus on increasing your faith in God towards answering your big prayer!

Growing in my faith WITH you.

Ps Mike