“Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God. You, however, are not controlled by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ.”
It may be a hard truth to stomach, but as long as a person continues without submitting to Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour, they cannot please God. Living in such a way that your good deeds outweigh your bad, is not sufficient to please Him and gain entry to heaven. The only way to please God is to repent and seek His forgiveness. Indeed, this is the only prayer of an unsaved person that God promises to answer.
Many Christians are concerned that they slip up on a regular basis – losing their temper, saying foolish things, falling into temptation, entertaining unholy thoughts. Sometimes they wonder if God still loves them. The Bible reassures us, time and time again, that His love is unconditional. While these things do not please God, what does please God is when we come to Him in repentance and seeking His forgiveness. Our voluntary love for Him is what He wants from us most of all.
We know what is right and what is wrong, because the Holy Spirit dwelling in us has a hold on our conscience. He will not let us get away with living in an ongoing lifestyle of sin. If you are getting away with it, and do not feel a sense of unease in your spirit, if you have no guilt about what you are doing, then it would seem that the Spirit is not active in your life. We all need to examine ourselves (2 Cor. 13:5) – do we really belong to Him?
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