October 28, 2009

When we truly love someone, our thoughts gravitate towards doing things that please the one who holds our heart. We were wired up that way by our creator!
In Ephesians 5:8-10, we are urged discover what pleases the Lord.

Our focus at H.o.P.E was “finding out what pleases God”.

We found out that this means aligning our behavior according to God’s will.  Participants were provided with a worksheet that contained 19 scriptures leading to 19 different ways God is pleased with His people.

Faith and Praise were two focus points for the evening. We took a look at heaven’s “Hall of Faith”, and the stories of those whose names are written as examples for us. We also joined in praise to God as we learned that praise not only pleases God, but moves His mighty hand to manifest His power as seen in the story of Paul and Silas. We saw the principle of praise in action as these men were beaten and chained and as they were miraculously released from prison during a “praise meeting”.
(Read their awesome story in Acts 16: 16-26!)

The challenge was given to take a scripture daily and commit to aligning behaviors to please God the specific way indicated by God’s Word.

We put the principle of pleasing God through praise into immediate action as a grateful H.o.P.E participant who had previously been diagnosed with multiple auto-immune diseases and left with no hope of recovery, came forward with a prayer quilt she had received a few months back and gave her testimony of healing.

…..And God was pleased!

-Kathy Perno
Music and Worship Coordinator