What pleases God

Oasis

Heera Nawaz, April 2, 2014, DHNS:,

Apr 02 2014, 23:44 ist
updated: Apr 02 2014, 23:44 ist

People believe in one God who is represented by different deities by people practising different religions.

In almost all religions, there are practices where people are expected to make offerings to God.

For example, Hindus have the practice of shearing their hair and offering it to the temple God at Tirupati; Muslims give one-third of their food to the poor during Muslim festivals; Christians have a practice of giving money to God.

While one is making offerings to God, it definitely does not matter whether the person has a great deal of wealth which he ostentatiously displays but what matters is the person’s genuineness, sincerity and earnestness of heart.

These are the attributes which please, pacify, placate and appease God the most.

Those wealthy and opulent people who enjoy a life of great riches and comforts may have huge bank balances but not necessarily a balance with God.

In fact, Jesus had said in the Bible, “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to go to heaven.”

In the book, “Jesus and His Life,” Jesus was at a busy marketplace where people were giving offerings in the form of money to God.

Crowds of people gathered putting their money in the temple treasury.

Affluent people gave much of their (perhaps ill-gotten) wealth to pacify God.

Then, Jesus saw a poor widow who put two very small copper coins, worth only a fraction of a penny.

Calling his disciples, Jesus said, “I tell you the truth; this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. They all gave out of their wealth, but she, out of her poverty, put in everything she had.”

Thus, God would definitely be more concerned and interested in the mindset, attitude, intention and perception of the giver.

Thus, God may look warily at wealthy people, thinking that their offering is made to “bribe” God.

Indeed, all gods have an almost uncanny ability of judging and sizing up people where they can almost intuitively read the giver’s mind and discern how genuine and earnest the person is.

On the Day of Judgement, God will instinctively know who to reward and who to punish.

God would be most pleased with the lives of persons who have led dedicated lives of service and compassion, like, for example, the late Mother Teresa.

She tirelessly struggled and unrelentingly served the Missionaries of Charity at Kolkata. It is said that during her life, she would see the image of a dying Christ in every leper, dying and destitute person she saw.

She could literally take Christ’s injunction, “As you did it to the least of these brethren, you did it to me.”

Thus, though Mother Teresa lived a simple and God-fearing life, her face devoid of any cosmetics or jewellery, she would go down as a person who genuinely pleased God by her acts of compassion and kindness to the dying and suffering humanity.