The person who pleases God most is the person whom God pleases most.

“By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death, and he was not found, because God had taken him. Now before he was taken he was commended as having pleased God. (Hebrews 11:5) And a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.” (Mark 1:11)”

Religion makes it very hard to please God. I mean, how good do I actually have to be for God to be pleased with me? Who can please God, He’s seen it all. And even if I was extremely good, why would that please Him anyway?

The word ‘please’ comes from the Latin ‘placere’ which essentially means to delight in something, to take pleasure in an object. So how profound is the fact that Enoch pleased God! How can any man please God?

Imagine God on His Throne surveying the Universe. He sees it all; dark matter, the billions of nuclear fusions that power the Sun and countless other stars. God sees planet Earth – the blue planet – with its vast body of water teeming with so much life we still haven’t discovered it all. Think of earth’s vast covering of vegetation; the swarming life in billions of shapes and sizes. And yet, the All-Seeing God is pleased with a man! The one creature that doesn’t fit! The one creature that ruins everything else, including himself.

How can this be? Isn’t the elephant more graceful? The lion more majestic? The wondering Albatross more enigmatic? Who doesn’t prefer puppies to people? But God delights in a man! Man is valuable to God. Enoch makes God happy. How?

There was another Man that God spoke to out of heaven and said, ‘I am well pleased with you.’ This is understandable because this Man was Jesus, God’s beloved Son. Anyone who has read any of the eyewitness accounts of Jesus can see His loving perfection in everything – of course God is pleased with Him. But Enoch? Me? What have I ever done to impress the Infinite One?

The answer is ‘faith’. Enoch’s faith in God made God pleased with Enoch. Faith is not less than believing that God is honest and trustworthy but its more than that. Faith in God means entrusting ourselves to Him. God has consistently told planet earth ever since Moses first began writing that the way to please Him is to trust Him.

But how does faith please Him? Because of that Man who intrinsically pleases Him – Jesus. Jesus pleased God by what He did. We please God by trusting Him. When we trust God, He accounts to us the righteousness of Jesus. God reckons to us all the good that Jesus did. Its called being righteous by faith. ‘Please’ is actually a shortened version of the old English phrase ‘if it please you’. It pleases God when we ask Him ‘Please make me righteous.’