My letters get published on the Church’s Facebook site, the website, and on Twitter.  Last week’s letter got a lot of attention.  I found myself sitting at my desk this week with stage fright.  “How am I going to top that?”

Who says I have to?  What exactly did I do differently than I did last week?  Why am I so concerned about how people react to my work?  Certainly I want people to like what I do.  It is natural to expect that some of what I do will change a person’s life.  However nothing I do will make a person change, so I should just relax.

Don’t get me wrong – I work hard at my job.  I have had coaches working with me to improve.  I pray that God would work through me, and that He would be pleased with what I do.  Am I perfect? – far from it!  When I sit down to write these letters and when I work at putting a sermon together, I do sense God’s pleasure in my work.  Rather than continue with this self-congratulating tone, let me switch gears a little bit.

When you do your work for God – do you sense His pleasure?  You should.  He does not expect you to be perfect, He does not expect anything from you.  He knows what you are capable of and He is okay with where you are – right now.  It is impossible to disappoint God.  In order to be disappointed you have to have an unmet expectation of another person.  God knows you so intimately, so completely that it is not possible for Him to have an unmet expectation.  If God wanted to, He could say; “I knew you were going to do that” every second of every day.

He also has a plan to help you improve, however right now He is pleased with your work for Him – and you need to know that.