In love 5 he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will
Can you imagine, God gets pleasure from us! The One who created everything, who created pleasure in the first place, receives pleasure from us. That is one of the great mysteries of the universe. How can an infinite God gain anything from anyone? And yet when we choose to surrender to His will, that gives Him something He didn’t have previously; He receives the outcome of our lives: worship. You see, you can’t force true worship; it can never be compelled or it loses it character as worship. Worship must be freely given or it is something other than worship. Part of that pleasure that we bring God is our inclusion in His family. When we are adopted into the family (not like the mafia family), that brings pleasure to God. It is what we were created to be: people intimately connected and interacting with God. So if your life of obedient surrender is to bring pleasure with God, how pleased is God with you today, this moment? I thought so! For most of us, from our perspective, our lives bring pleasure to God on an exception basis. Because sin has invaded us to such an extent, it appears to take years of obedient surrender for our lives to please God. But that is our perspective. I believe the struggle itself brings God pleasure. As we stumble into sin and struggle with the consequences, and we acknowledge God’s presence in the recovery process, God sees our desire for connection with Him and is pleased. It is not the content of the phone calls from our children that thrills us, but the fact that they called us. That is what important to us. We want to be part of their lives, even though they are grown. We want to hear the details of the ultrasound or the BBQ at a friend’s house, not because those details are earth-shattering, but because they give us a window into the lives of our children. When God looks in your windows, are you giving Him a clear picture of those details, or do you have some places hidden from His view?
The Arnold Journey 