God’s works, done His way, for His name, bring His rest. “And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good.” (Genesis 1:31).

God continues to work and to rejoice in what He makes. He continues to find satisfaction and joy in doing good on behalf of His people. “I will rejoice in doing them good, and I will plant them in this land in faithfulness, with all my heart and all my soul” (Jeremiah 32:14).

Dear Elim Grace, here are five good things God rejoices to do for you and in you.

1. God rejoices to give you purity (not trials). “The friendship of the Lord is (reserved) for those who fear him” (Ps. 25:13-14) or for those who walk in awe of Him or for those who walk in purity before Him. Purity is to treasure God. It is to make room and room only in the heart for God. So “he makes known to them his covenant”. Trials come and serve as a fire for drawing out the impurities of our heart. But it is the treasure and friendship of the heart that God is after.

2. God rejoices to give you potential (not platform). Paul says God gives power “according to the working of His great might” or potential (Ephesians 1:19). There is an ocean of might behind the power God supplies. It will never run dry. In God, your potential is not in what you have, but in what you draw from. In other words, you are only as strong as the strength you draw from God. Only as mighty as the might you draw from God. Only as joyful as the joy you draw from God. Only was wise as the wisdom you draw from God. God wants to enlarge your capacity to draw/receive your glory from Him. Not from your platform or your praise or your honor from men. These are all but “empty cisterns”.

3. God rejoices to give you people (not ministry). Yes, we are called to ministry. To serve. But ministry is people. We can lose sight of people in the work of ministry. We can lose our love for people under the success or failure of ministry. We can lose compassion for people chasing the recognition of ministry. God saying it was not good for man to be alone proves that our joy is found in another, not in ourselves. First, in Jesus. Second, in those He’s called us to serve. To have a successful marriage, follow (obey) these two commands: love one another and submit to one another. To have a fruitful ministry, follow (obey) these two commands: love one another and put one another first.

4. God rejoices to give you power (not complacency). Jesus needed “the power of the Spirit” for the work of His ministry (Luke 4). Even though He was the very Son of God. And John the Baptist said Jesus would be the one to baptize His followers with the Spirit and with fire (power) for the work of their ministry. Even though they were already disciples and sons of God. So in Acts 19:2-6, believers say to Paul, “we have not even heard that there is the Holy Spirit”. So he baptized them “in the name of the Lord Jesus…(and) the Holy Spirit came upon them”. Why? Because Jesus was doing what He had promised to do: baptize his own in the Holy Spirit and in power. This is the repeated story and pattern in the book of Acts. We are not to rest or become complacent in our own strength or power. We are not even to rest in being “born again”! There is a subsequent, ongoing and necessary impartation of power that Jesus gives by His Spirit!

5. God rejoices to give you purpose (not time). Your purpose as a new creation in Christ is rooted in the field of the kingdom of God and the body of Christ. God has planted you in that field and only there will He bring forth fruit and fruit that remains. A personal sphere of influence grows out of that soil. But to uproot yourself in independence from the kingdom-body is to cut yourself off from life. Growing a BIG people is a purpose God has called us to, Elim Grace. Purpose redeems time. And money. And resources. Our campaign and expansion is about purpose. It’s about fulfilling God’s purpose for us in our generation, so that coming generations can fulfill God’s purpose for them. If we invest in that purpose, God will be our reward.