Accepted

When I was growing up I felt different. I felt I didn’t belong. I not only wondered if I was adopted but I also hoped I was adopted. For if only I were adopted, I could rationalize why it was I was different and be okay with it.

By nature I am reclusive. I was very shy as a child. My mother, my brother, and my sister always enjoyed being around people and blended in easily with the crowd. I never cared for crowds. As a child birthday parties, trick or treating on Halloween and Easter eggs hunts were well outside my comfort zone; not to mention big family gatherings.

As an adult I felt rejection. I was primed for it of course. What an easy transition from feeling different to feeling rejection; it really is a small step. I felt rejected by my father because he was around so seldom when I growing up—he had demons of his own he was battling. I felt rejected by my husband—again, a man battling demons of his own. I felt rejected by my maternal grandfather—after all; I was so very different from everyone else in the family. These men said they loved me; it was me who judged their actions to be in conflict with their words.

By way of explanation—I am a person who has always looked at the world as black and white; no grays allowed. That viewpoint does help to keep you out of trouble—I have always been an honest person. The downside of the black-white viewpoint is that it tends to make you somewhat rigid—someone is either right or wrong—there are no allowances for pre-existing conditions, situations or circumstances.

I grew up in a Christian family. (God has always been so good to me!) I grew up in church. I accepted Christ as a teenager and I have known without a doubt since that time that Christ lived within my heart. I interject this because there are people who believe that when we accept Christ as Savior we suddenly become fully spiritually mature—but spiritual maturity is a process. Why did I feel rejected and unloved? I was spiritually immature and placed blame on others when it was not theirs to bear.

A few years ago I was reading a passage of scripture that no doubt I had read before when the Holy Spirit spoke to me…and this time I listened…I really listened. And this is what I learned: I am loved and I am accepted because He loves me. Reading from the New King James Version, Ephesians 1:3-6 says this:

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.”

It does not matter how others may feel about me, I am accepted in the Beloved. I am adopted, a joint-heir with Christ and I became that when I repented of my sins and asked Him to come and live in my heart. God loves me—HE loves me…even me! For someone like me who felt different—who felt acutely rejected—that knowledge is monumental! The acceptance of that truth allowed me to forgive others completely; that knowledge destroyed the bitterness that I had allowed to build up inside of my heart; that knowledge instilled within me an ability to love others more completely. That knowledge allowed me to take another step toward spiritual maturity!

We often hear it said, “Let go and let God.” It is a simple statement but simple does not equate to easy. What are you harboring in your heart today? Is it anger; bitterness; self-pity? What I want you to know today—whether you are a Christian or non-Christian—God loves you. He really, really does. I pray with all my heart that you believe that statement. GOD LOVES YOU!

If you are a Christian, you have already been accepted in the Beloved. And if you are not a Christian, God loves you and gave His Son to die on the cross for your sins. Jesus died, was buried, and arose victoriously—conquering death—for you. Come to Christ today. Pray and ask Christ to come into your heart today and become accepted in the Beloved.

"For God loved the world in this way: He gave His One and Only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16, HCSB

“Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” Romans 10:13, NIV

“…God who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did.” Romans 4:17b, NKJV

Have faith in God!

God bless!