When I was playing High School football, I failed to catch a punt. The other team recovered the ball, and a few plays later, they scored a touchdown. We were undefeated in our first four games and had shut out every team. It was quiet on the bus ride home that night. My approval level with my teammates tanked. In practice the next week, paired up against the meanest guy on our team, I became a blocking dummy.
My hope of catching an inflated pigskin, and returning it for a glorious touchdown, was replaced with the pain of failure and rejection. I also endured the pain of the toughest guy on the team grinding me into the dirt. I soon realized that if I took him out at the ankles, his pain would increase, and mine would cease. Mission accomplished. Though the physical pain stopped, the lingering effects of rejection continued to ferment in the compost pile of my soul.
Haven’t we all experienced the agony of defeat in our lives? We try but fail. Our performance falls short, or we don’t seem to fit in. Perhaps we buy into the lie that says we are too tall, or too short, too skinny, or too heavy. Others feel rejected because of their looks, skin color, social status, relationship disasters, or economic struggles. Sometimes these judgmental messages come our way in an instant. At other times they are a slow and subtle sense of rejection that informs us we fall short of someone else’s standard.
God does not treat us that way. He not only accepts us—He is the one who makes us acceptable. “… to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved” (Ephesians 1:6 NKJV). Do you see the difference? It’s one thing to feel someone accepts you, that you have no inferior qualities that make them push you away. It’s another thing when they invite you into their club, give you the keys, and trust you to lock up at the end of the night.
God’s acceptance lifts us higher than membership in an exclusive club. When we understand we are made acceptable to God—by God—everything changes. The tough guys of life may try to grind us into the dirt, but God’s acceptance will knock the feet out from under them.
What is the method God uses to make you acceptable? What tools are available to you to defeat your nemesis? The verse we just read reveals that by “His grace… He made us accepted in the Beloved.” Jesus is the Beloved. When you put your faith in Jesus, God places you “in Him.” Scripture tells us God the Father was “well pleased” with His Son. Since you are in Jesus, and He is in you, that which is true about God’s acceptance of His Son is true about you. Jesus had not done one blessed thing when His Father spoke this over Him. No miracles, no sermons, no healing the sick, no feeding the five thousand, nothing. It’s as if God based His acceptance of Jesus on the fact that He is His Son—and not on His performance. Go figure!
Let’s break the verse down a little further. It says, “He made us accepted.” This leaves our good deeds and our bad choices out of the equation. The verse also says it was by “His grace.” Accepting us is something God did for us, as an act of grace. God’s acceptance, just like His grace, is a gift. It is not something we need to work for. We can’t earn it, we don’t deserve it, but His acceptance is ours because we are His children.
God’s approval is not a license to go crazy and live a life of blatant sin. When we know God loves and accepts, love and acceptance empowers us to live up to our full potential. God knows how to bring out the best in us.
We will defeat our tough guy nemesis when we “Live Loved” and live accepted. Believe it, receive it, and proclaim it. Ask God to reprogram the way you see yourself. When you do, you will love and accept yourself and you will become more loving and accepting towards others.
God’s acceptance of us flows from His love for us.
“Live Loved” and you will Live Accepted!