What pleases God? What delights his heart? And what displeases God? What grieves his heart?
If asked, I think most of us would assume that if we ever grieve the heart of God it will be through denying the gospel or committing a grave moral scandal. Or if we do so as a local church, it will be by compromising to the culture or apostatizing altogether.
As for what delights the heart of God, I think most of us would assume that if we ever delight the heart of God it will be through great acts—giving tremendous sums of money or dedicating our lives to a difficult mission. Or perhaps on the level of the local church, it will be by sparking revival or leading thousands to Christ.
In other words, we are prone to believe that God is both grieved and delighted by what is extra-ordinary—great deeds of sin or great acts of service. The reality, though, is that we serve a God who finds great meaning in what we count as small matters—a cup of water for a thirsty man, new clothes for a ragged child, a gentle visit to a lonely soul. God is not pleased only when we accomplish what we might count as great things for him and not grieved only when we commit what we might count as great sins. Rather, he is pleased when we accomplish what he counts as faithful things and grieved when we fail to accomplish them.
This means that God may be grieved by situations that seem to us to be very mundane. Ephesians 4:30 warns, “do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God.” As we zoom out to the surrounding verses to gain our context we see that God can be grieved by our words, and especially the words we exchange with other believers. He can be grieved by situations we encounter every day—the words we exchange in our homes, the conversations we engage in online. Together we can grieve the Spirit in the fellowship time we have after church on a Sunday or the small group time we have on a weekday evening. We must be vigilant in these very common contexts because every time we open our mouths to speak to one another we have the ability to grieve the Spirit.
God delights in a word that is well-spoken, a word that encourages, a word that builds up, a word that gives grace.
Yet surely if we can grieve the Spirit through our words, we can also delight him. God delights in a word that is well-spoken, a word that encourages, a word that builds up, a word that gives grace. It delights the Spirit when we allow life-giving words to flow out of our mouths to be a blessing to others.
There is so much evil we can do with our words. And there is so much good. There is so much grief we can cause when we speak; there is so much delight. For that reason, each of us ought to make it a habit—regularly, routinely, and prayerfully—to ponder this admonition: “Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.”
