Acceptance

"Erm...yeah you! You can be on my team!"

"Okay then, I'll have....you!"

We have all been in that position at least once in our life. The two team captains are picking teams and you're waiting to be chosen. So much rides on the direction of that finger as it points to each individual child. Once the finger is in your directions the palpitations cease because guess what? You have been chosen and accepted into a team. And what about those of us who were unfortunately were not even picked last but due to being last ended up on someone's team, or if the teams were uneven had to sit out. That desire to have significance, to be accepted is common amongst most if not all. People are always striving to be noticed, for that significance, to be loved. 

God shared with me some things, that I would like to share with you. Without faith we cannot please God (Hebrews 11) and have faith as I believe in Him and so He is pleased with me. When Jesus was baptised, God said, 'This is my Son with whom I am well pleased." What is interesting is that Jesus had not yet done what He was sent to do, but yet God said He was well pleased with Jesus. WELL PLEASED! He is well pleased with me and accepts me!

Ephesians 2 says it is by grace through faith we are saved. We are always in need of salvation as we are being transformed into His likeness. It is not by works that God is pleased with me and accepts me and I access grace to become who He has called me to be. It is by faith. 

Not only that, but He says as well as accepting me, He is coming back for me! I have been in situations where I have been chosen and then rejected but God has chosen me and not changed His mind - He's coming back for me! He has said that I am loveable! We need to believe that He who has begun a good work is faithful to complete it. 

It can be so easy to get caught up in other peoples' opinion of us and to live for the acceptance of others but Proverbs says that the fear of man is a snare. It is a trap! Those who live to please people can not live freely, especially because the opinion of people is always changing. Lecrae put it nicely when he said "You live for their acceptance, you die from their rejection". You need to love you and who God has created you to be. Not everybody is going to accept you, but how can you expect anybody to accept you when you don't accept yourself. You are worth loving and accepting. Christ showed that when He died on the cross for you!

A message I heard recently really challenged me in this area. The pastor made reference to Mary and how she responded to the angel Gabriel. When the angel Gabriel told Mary she had found favour with God and that she was going to be the mother of Jesus, she didn't question her acceptance or who she was. She was able to carry and give birth to such a gift because she was already in a place of acceptance that wasn't achieved but received. We know this by her response- it was a response of faith. She replied to the angel, 'Let it be according to your word.' It's not that God can not use us in a place of doubt- there are many people in the Bible that God used who He had to affirm but notice that they looked to Him for their affirmation. However the longer we grapple with our acceptance is the more of ourselves we focus on and the less of God. We need to keep our eyes on God for He has chosen us.

Mark Driscoll also put it nicely when, in a recent message, he explained that identity is not achieved but something that is received. We are made in God's image, but after the fall that image was distorted, and so Christ died on the cross to restore who we are. We then do not have to work for who we are- we don't have to try to be somebody but we receive who we are from God. He accepts us and affirms us. We don't have to wait for somebody else to notice us, He has already noticed you and is waiting for you to find out that He is pleased with you!

**Perfect love casts out all fear**