Am I Accepted by God

Acceptance is a basic human need. We are often even ready to compromise on our convictions in order to be accepted by some community since that is a basic need for us. Environment is always created before a creation. God created man after creating an atmosphere of God’s presence in the garden of Eden. Man cannot survive without that environment of being loved and accepted. Every single individual is searching for that environment that they are born to live in – love and acceptance. Acceptance is actually ‘love in action’.

There can be two levels of acceptance – duty Acceptance and whole-hearted acceptance. If you are given a pen, however costly it is and however beautiful it is, you are not overtly excited about it but you still accept it out of courtesy because it is after all just pen and is just one among many in your collection. If you are given an iPhone that you were coveting, then the story is different. There is excitement and whole-hearted acceptance – at least for a few months. We think we are just an ordinary individual in the eyes of God – just one among many. We feel inferiority and inadequacy. But God accepts us whole-heartedly. You were the longing and dream of God. Even before you were born, God loved and accepted you. Angels rejoiced in heaven when you accepted Jesus. You are significant in the eyes of God. You are not an accident in the kingdom of God. You were born with a destiny. You were destined to belong to him.

When we explain something to a child, we get down to the level of understanding of the child. You want to relate to the child. God talks to us like that – giving us pictures so that we can comprehend a little bit of who he is.

In Isaiah 49:15 “Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you!”, there is a question – can a mother forget her child? God is using that human illustration to stress that He will never forget us even if a mother does that. He says I will never forget you. When we go through times of difficulty and broken relationships, we dwell on the thought sown by Satan that God has forgotten us. But He has not. He has engraved us in the palms of His hands. When we have difficulties we wonder whether God is there and we try to be at our best so that He will help us. But God says that our Christian life does not depend on us holding on to God but God holding on to us. Just like it’s the mother who holds on to the child, He is holding on to us and we can relax knowing that. God is with you.

Zephaniah 3:17 “The Lord your God is with you, the Mighty Warrior who saves. He will take great delight in you; in his love he will no longer rebuke you, but will rejoice over you with singing.” He delights in you because you are His child.

The child has only brought mess, but still the mother loves the child. He comforts you in your times of distress. We throw tantrums but He is patient and loving with us. There may not be answer at that time, but only comfort. Like spoilt kids blame the parents when something goes wrong, we also blame God for our troubles.

Psalm 139:17 “How precious to me are your thoughts, God! How vast is the sum of them!” David understood God’s love for Him. We can love God only when we understand His love for us. Only then we can reciprocate to Him. The Psalmist says God is mindful of us. He knows every detail about us.

Isaiah 62:5 “As a young man marries a young woman, so will your Builder marry you; as a bridegroom rejoices over his bride, so will your God rejoice over you”, another illustration. Bridegroom and bride, not husband and wife. God in his wisdom chose the most tender moments of our relationship to illustrate His love for us. Can we comprehend that? Can we bring that into our devotions when we sit before Him? His love is unconditional.

Psalm 27:10 “Though my father and mother forsake me, the Lord will receive me.” Another illustration. Though my father and mother forsake me, He will not leave me. It is devastating to be forsaken by parents. Even if the most trusted relationship forsakes you, God wi ll not leave you. He will always accept you. No human being can love you the way you need. Thats why people go around seeking love. You don’t get married to get love, you should get married to give love.

Read Matthew 6. Worship Him as your Father. Jesus was about to be stoned for calling God His father. Galatians 4:6. You are sons and you can call out ‘Abba Father’. Not slaves. We don’t have to earn our blessings from God. We are trying to earn. The more you try, the worse it gets. A son has the freedom in the father’s house. Son is entitled to an inheritance.We are joint heirs with Christ. A slave can stop being a slave. But a son never stops being a son. God has accepted us. In Old Testament, when a person brings a sacrifice for his sin, the priest examines the sacrifice, and not the sinner. Similarly when we come to God now, God looks at Jesus who was our sacrifice and we are accepted.

Ephesians 2:12 having no hope. But verse 13 – you have been united with Christ. We have access to God not based on our works, but by the blood of Jesus. We are close to God as close as our two fingers. Religion teaches us that God is far away. We need sacrifice after sacrifice to get close to God. There is difference between relationship and fellowship. Whether your son talks to you for the next 6 months, he is still your son. But what is affected is the fellowship. It is fellowship which helps us to enjoy the relationship. Our relationship with Christ is secure. So our fellowship is important. We need to spend time with God to enhance our relationship. He is close with us. God with us – Immanuel. The Kingdom of God is at hand. Moses was not satisfied with the miracles of god. Exodus 33:18-20. He wanted to see the glory of God, which i s God’s character. God revealed His characteristics to Moses. God is compassionate, gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love, faithful all the time. You are a recipient of these characters of God. This must be the foundation of our christian life. When Jesus was born on earth, He embodied all these characters of God and displayed it. Never let your circumstances define who God is for you. Look at the character of God and define what your circumstances should be.