We all want to be accepted, don’t we? We yearn to find those people, places and events where we feel like we truly belong, where we can “be ourselves” and not have to put up a false front. What if there is a place we can always go and be accepted immediately—just as we are, even when we are most messed up? What if there is someone who will never push us away, but always welcome us with open arms? Wouldn’t you want to go running to that Person? Wouldn’t you always want to be with that Person?
To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved. Ephesians 1:6 KJV
God’s Invitation? Come as You Are!
The wonderful thing about dogs, best friends and grandparents is that we can usually go to them and be loved and accepted just as we are. This is all the more important because we secretly know deep down that we aren’t as we ought to be. We aren’t really acceptable, not even to ourselves, if you take our moral failures into consideration. Don’t believe it? Would you want your innermost thoughts displayed on a screen above your head—at all times and in all situations? Enough said.
Yet, God our Father accepts us just as we are! Once we’ve turned to Jesus and asked God to forgive us and save us, God “is able” to do something absolutely remarkable and outrageous: He places us “in Christ” and completely accepts us, holding nothing back. He accepts us as fully as He accepts Jesus! Then, He goes even further. He promises to never leave us, forsake us, or reject us. Trusting to His unbounded acceptance frees us to finally and fully accept ourselves and live with grace and freedom, confident that even if we need correction, it will come with a soft touch, not hard blows. This is a Friend who sticks closer than a brother.
This does not mean, of course, that He accepts or approves of our sins. No, He loves and accepts us perfectly, but He continues to hate and oppose our sins. Thanks to the reconciliation Jesus accomplished (at the His request), the Father is able to justify us—to look upon us or relate to us just as if we didn’t have any sin. He is not blind to what is there, but He sees our sins as no longer who we are, but as something clinging to us like dirt. Just as we “reject” the dirt that is upon us and wash ourselves to get free of it, so too the Father wants to cleanse us of any sin He sees. But He is singing gently as He draws the bath.
When you think about it, that’s just the way we would want it. As attached as we may be to some of our more “cherished” sins, we still recognize deep down that they are wrong and therefore harmful both to us and to the ones we love. We really do want to have a God who can ultimately “go to war” against our sins and liberate us from them—so long as we are not destroyed along with them in the process. What we don’t want is a God who hates and rejects us for being stuck to them like glue! What we want is what we have, a simply divine Friend who loves us enough to accept us just as we are, while all the while drawing out of us our better side.
We are truly gifted with acceptance—all we could ever desire or need.
Learn how being “Accepted in the Beloved” helps us defeat feelings of rejection from others.
About the Author: Steve Evans
For over a decade Steve Evans and Healing Streams have been helping people recover inner peace and freedom. Through Forerunners4Him he has been showing how we can be saved for heaven and teaching the way to live a Spirit filled life on earth. Go now to receive a completely free primer, Getting to Heaven and/or an introduction to Living in the Spirit at forerunners4him.org. 
