making God the Father happy

Today in the One Year Bible, we read from Luke 12:8-34. Today we read about what makes the Father happy.

Just a few days ago, we read about what made Jesus happy. And today we learn what makes God the Father happy. Kind of funny that just recently I didn't know of any verse about Jesus being happy, and now I find one in which God the Father is described as being filled with joy.

What would you guess makes Him happy? Our praise? Our worship? Our obedience? Well, it does involve us, but it's nothing that we give HIM. Instead, our reading today tells us that God is happy when He gives us the kingdom.

And if we look back at Genesis, we see that God was pleased with His creation, as well. It seems that God delights in GIVING. He is a source of goodness and beauty. He is creativity itself. It makes Him happy to give us things. That's pretty awesome to stop and realize. God delights in giving.

Besides realizing that He will, therefore, take care of us, giving us what we need to live (as Jesus goes on to tell us in the next few verses), it's also a calling on our lives. If we are to become more like God, we should learn to delight in giving as well. And the best way to learn to delight in it, I think, is to do it. The more we give, the more we enjoy giving.

Try it. You'll like it.

God, thank You for delighting in giving to us. Please teach us to love it like You do.