You ARE Loved. You ARE Accepted. PERIOD.

So many of us try, day after day, to gain the acceptance and approval of others. We want others to accept us despite our flaws and despite the mistakes we have made. We hope that others can look past all that and see us for who we really are. We say things like, “I wish they would just like me for me and not what I look like, act like, hang around with, etc.” But who are we really? How do you define yourself? What do you allow to define you? Who do you allow to define you and your worth? If we base our worth, whether or not we are acceptable people on the opinions of others, we are basing it all on sinking sand; we are basing our worth on something that is wavering, fleeting, inconsistent and not necessarily true. When I lost my job in early December 2007, I felt like I was a ginormous failure. When I considered how I was treated at that job and the mistakes I made that lead to the loss of the job, I felt worthless. But was I truly a failure? Was I really worthless? I discovered that I depended on my job, the opinions of others, and my status as a well paid x-ray technician, to define how much I was worth. When the rug was ripped out from underneath me, I found myself with nothing left to hold onto, including the rug. I found myself in the deepest pit I have ever been in. That's where Jesus came in. That's where my darkness was illuminated by the light of his love through his people and for the first time in my life, I saw that I was loved, and worth something. I saw the truth. Now, 5 years later, I can say without a doubt that losing my job was a blessing. Not only did it take me out of an extremely toxic work environment where I was being belittled everyday, but I had completely forgotten about Jesus. There he was with me the whole time and I ignored him After all, I didn't need him to provide for me. I had a high paying x-ray technician job. Right? Wrong. The last five years have been full of God's provision. They have been full of His light shining through my darkness, exposing lies I have believed for a very long time. They have been full of healing through loving relationships with people who are genuine Followers of Jesus Christ themselves; people who have sacrificed their time and talents to speak love and truth into my life. For that I am extremely grateful. In order to live life as someone who walks in the truth, I had to discover what the truth was. I had to see myself how God sees me and discover why he sent his Son, Jesus, to die for a sinner like me. So, what is true? The Bible is full of passages that speak of our value and worth and of how we are defined because of Christ. I’m going to list some of the passage references for you, but I encourage you to look them up for yourself because there are more than what I have listed. Here’s a short list to get you started. Deuteronomy 7:6 – YOU are his special treasure. Psalm 139 – He knows everything about YOU, in detail. Isaiah 49:16 – YOUR name is written on the palms of his hands. Jeremiah 31:3 – His love for YOU is everlasting. Zephaniah 3:17 – He rejoices over YOU Romans 5:8 – He loved YOU when you deemed yourself unlovable and when you chose to rebel against Him. Romans 8:38-39 – NOTHING can ever take his love away from you. NOTHING. Hebrews 13:5-6 – He will NEVER leave YOU. He has NOT forgotten about YOU. (I hope you’ll look these up and then keeping going and find some more!) One of my favorite illustrations of God’s acceptance of us is found by taking a look at two passages; one found in Matthew and one found in Ephesians. "After his baptism, as Jesus came up out of the water, the heavens were opened and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and settling on him. And a voice from heaven said, “This is my dearly loved Son, who brings me great joy.” (Matthew 3:16-17) This happened way before Jesus ever performed or did anything. Jesus was totally, completely, and perfectly, accepted and loved without doing anything. The same thing goes for each one of you. God loves YOU and accepts YOU without you doing anything. That list you have of things that you think you need to do to be loved and accepted? You know what list I’m talking about… Rip it up, throw it in the trash, burn it, flush it down the toilet (write it on TP first. I did this before. It worked. Ha!) That list is first of all, not the truth, and second of all, worthless. His love and acceptance of you require nothing on your part. He loves you because he created you. You are his masterpiece. His beautiful creation loved greatly and cherished just because you are. ”God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.” (Ephesians 2:8-10) Did you read that correctly? Read it again. Memorize it. Hold it close to your heart. There is nothing you can do to make God love you more than he does at this very moment. There is nothing you can do that would cause him to take his love away from you, NOTHING. He loves you all the time. He is with you all the time. He is good all the time. Just for fun and to reinforce the whole FACT that you are INDEED accepted just as you are, I am going to throw in Colossians 1:19-22. “For God in all his fullness was pleased to live in Christ, and through him God reconciled everything to himself. He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth by means of Christ’s blood on the cross. This includes you who were once far away from God. You were his enemies, separated from him by your evil thoughts and actions. Yet now he has reconciled you to himself through the death of Christ in his physical body. As a result, he has brought you into his own presence, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault.” That’s right. YOU my friend are LOVED and ACCEPTED just as you are. Better believe it! Stop listening to the lies that the world tells you and that others tell you and start listening to the truth of God. Seek HIM, Ask HIM what he thinks of you. Dive into his Word and discover how fond he really is of you. Ready. Set. Go!