His good pleasure

for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure. - Philippians 2v13


I received the following in from a friend yesterday. I am going to post the entire anecdote to help illustrate my point today.

‘Sometimes we wonder, 'What did I do to deserve this?' or 'Why did God have to do this to me?' Here is a wonderful explanation!

A daughter is telling her mother how everything is going wrong: she's failing algebra; her boyfriend broke up with her and her best friend is moving away.

Meanwhile, her Mother is baking a cake and asks her daughter if she would like a snack, and the daughter says, 'Absolutely, Mom, I love your cake.'

'Here, have some cooking oil,' her Mother offers. 'Yuck,' says her daughter.

'How about a couple of raw eggs?' 'Gross, Mom!'

'Would you like some flour then? Or maybe baking soda?' 'Mom, those are all yucky!'

To which the mother replies: 'Yes, all those things seem bad by themselves. But when they are put together in the right way, they make a wonderfully delicious cake!

God works the same way. Many times we wonder why He would let us go through such bad and difficult times. But God knows that when He put these things all in His order, they always work for good! We just have to trust Him and, eventually, they will all make something wonderful!’

Through this passage Paul has been saying that there is an outworking of our salvation. We are to show His salvation in our lives, in ‘fear and trembling’ as Paul puts it. We know straight up that this outworking is not going to be easy, it is going to involve trouble and hard times. Sometimes it is going to seem like raw eggs and cooking oil from our perspective.

Verse 13 should clarify this for us. It is God that is at work in us to carry out His will and fulfil His good pleasure. ‘Good pleasure’ refers to God’s ‘kind satisfaction. Now at first appearance that might appear selfish of God. That is, until we remember something about us. God is love and He loved us so much that He sent His Son to die on the cross for us. We are reminded in Romans that all things work together for good to those who love God and are the called according to His purpose.

God is at work in us to accomplish His will and His good pleasure. Part of His good pleasure is doing good for us. Let’s not taste the raw eggs, cooking oil, and the dry flour. Let’s simply look forward to the cake that He is working out in His will and His good pleasure. At the end of the day He knows far better than us what is good for us.

Praise God for His will and His good pleasure!