What is He Praising Me For?

If all our "good" responses to God -- our faith, our love, our praises and thanksgiving to Him, even our repentance -- if all these come from Him --
then why does He praise us for doing them? Why does He say, "Your faith has made you well," "Well done, My good and faithful servant"?

Isn't that sort of playing games and "cheating"? Nothing a holy God should do!

No....because we have the option of disobedience at each step.

We can refuse to thank Him. We can look away when He speaks to us. We can ignore His warnings and drift away. We can "quench the spirit."

We can try to hide sin in our hearts and reject repentance. 

But when we choose to shower our thanks and praises on Him for His so-obvious goodness; when we eagerly reach out to read and ponder His Word; when we extend grace and forgiveness (when though we may not feel like it) -- this pleases Him.

So when He praises us for our love and obedience, He is reminding us that He knows we are bent and broken human beings who acknowledge our need for Him and who choose to take the straight path right to His heart even though many around us are encouraging us to take the other path away from Him.

He knows how hard it is!

So His compliments to us are highest blessings!

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Even the best Christian that ever lived is not acting on his own steam--he is only nourishing or protecting a life that he could never have acquired by his own efforts.  And that has practical consequences.

As long as the natural life is in your body, it will do a lot towards repairing that body. Cut it, and up to a point, it will heal, as a dead body will not. A live body is not one that never gets hurt, but one that can to some extent repair itself.

In the same way a Christian is not a man who never goes wrong, but a man who is enabled to repent and pick himself up and begin over again after each stumble--because the Christ-life in inside him, repairing him all the time; enabling him to repeat (in some degree) the kind of voluntary death which Christ Himself carried out.

That is why the Christian is in a different position from other people who are trying to be good. They hope, by being good, to please God if there is one--if they think there is not--at least they hope to deserve approval from some good men.

But the Christian thinks any good he does comes from the Christ-life inside him. He does not think God will love us because we are good, but that God will make us good because He loves us; just as the roof of a greenhouse does not attract the sun because it is bright, but becomes bright because the sun shines on it.

---From Mere Christianity, by C. S. Lewis