Acceptance...

...one of my biggest battles here recently. Sometimes it's so hard to just accept things the way they are...to accept people the way they are. There are always things going on in our lives that we just need to accept...pray about and move on. God's acceptance of us is unconditional...and the most amazing thing to me is there are no if's. God will accept me if I believe the right things, if I behave a certain way, if I say my prayers, if I do good deeds. God loves and accepts us...PERIOD. He first loves us...before we say or do anything.

I believe that most relationships we have as humans has way too many "I'll love and accept you if's"...if you  love and accept me fist...if you meet my needs...if you do your part...if you meet me half way...if you have the same opinion I do...and the list goes on. God's love and acceptance is always BEFORE any love we show him. 

(Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God - Romans 15:1-7)

Too often instead of allowing the Spirit to transform us into the image of Christ...we try to fix people or shape people into the image we think they should be. The motive behind our acceptance of people must not be so that we can convert them to our way of thinking, believing or behaving. There's nothing wrong with wanting the best for others, but we have to learn to just accept people with all their hang-ups...and trust God to work in their lives. 

God's acceptance is liberating...we no longer have to hide our faults or defend or deny our failures. There is no need to try to rationalize or justify ourselves. We don't have to earn our way with God so there is no need to worry about our mistakes. Of course something even more liberating is the fact that once you ask for forgiveness for whatever mistake it is you have made...he forgives you... UNCONDITIONALLY! If we would all love and accept each other they way God loves and accepts us...WOW!...would life be a lot easier.

When you know of God's acceptance and then are able to accept yourself you are less likely to put on a front or play a role. None of us want to be a fake or a phony, but we fear honest self-communication and self-revelation...especially if we think we will be condemned or rejected. All of us receive these messages of condemnation from time to time and we find ways to protect ourselves. But if the truth of God's acceptance can descend from our minds to our hearts and take root there and grow...it will eventually smother out our fears and anxieties. 

God is greater than our hearts. God's love and acceptance is greater. We have to trust that. This is what Jesus means when he says that we have to become like little children or we will never enter the kingdom of God. When we truly know God's love and acceptance in our hearts, we should accept others. In fact, this is the responsibility that comes with God's acceptance. The gift of acceptance is a gift that keeps on giving...we give as has been given to us. The more we share this gift...the more we carry this gift to others...the more the Spirit pours out God's love into our hearts. 

I don't know about you...but I will take all of God's love I can get. Thank you Jesus for the love that brought you here on earth to die for our sins...that we might know and experience the true gift of love and acceptance.