“The Lord has heard my cry for mercy; The Lord accepts my prayer”
(Psalm 6: 9)
One of my granddaughters had applied for a new exciting job just recently, and after several interviews, she heard the good news that her application had been accepted. We all rejoiced with her at the good news. I was watching a fascinating documentary a few weeks ago on the TV that was dealing with the importance of being accepted, it is very important for the vulnerable ones in our society, such as new immigrants, the mentally challenged, the disabled. The program I was watching was focusing on young immigrants. By learning how to play hockey they had a wonderful tool to help young ones find friends and feel acceptance with their peer group. The young man coaching the youngsters gave a wonderful testimony as to what this had done for him, when he was a lonely newcomer to Canada. The participants were provided with used but good hockey equipment to get them started. I loved the looks of joy on their faces
Some of us struggle with being accepted and often feel rejected by our peers and this even happens in our church families where we may feel we don’t match up to other’s faith or perhaps we feel we haven’t the gifts that others display, mistakenly coming to 
think that God doesn’t accept us as true followers. God assures us that yes in his eyes we are certainly accepted, in fact the Lord is not influenced by appearances, he is more interested in our hearts. If we have a heart that loves the Father and his word, we are certainly accepted
“The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” (1 Samuel 16: 7)
One of the big lessons I thought was being exhibited in the program I was watching, was for all of us to be willing to accept others, Jesus urged us to love our neighbours not just the ones who were just like us, not just the ones who looked like us, not just the ones we relate to, but those who our acceptance will show the love of Christ.
When Paul is writing to the Roman church, he entreats them to accept each other. When we practice this within our church family, it gives the world a wonderful example of 
practicing what the word of God says. When the reverse happens, bickering and division, we cast doubts about the truth of being followers of Jesus. Paul puts it very clearly…
“Accept one another then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God.” (Romans 15: 7)
Accepting others is not to make others think how understanding we are, but to allow our actions to bring praise to God.
Just recently I had the most incredible example of what the Lord was saying to Isaiah when he said his people would be covered with the shadow of his hands. I was scheduled for an eye operation and as I had had a terrible result from the first operation on the other eye that left it damaged, I was very nervous about the outcome of this one. I asked my Bible study and friends to pray for me on the day of my operation and an amazing thing happened, as I lay on the operating table the nurse wrapped me in a warm blanket and suddenly I felt a wonderful sense of calm and felt the Holy Spirit was standing right beside me. I felt covered in prayer
The most important part of being protected is firstly asking the Lord for that Heavenly and then accepting it. Too often we take things into our own hands, thinking we can handle any thing that comes along. When we do this and not pray and not ask for prayer from other believers, we are ignoring and dismissing that wonderful offer of being covered with the mighty hand of God as we face life’s challenges. Coming from a hot country, Australia, we knew if we were not covered in sun cream or protective clothing, we would certainly get sunburnt, how foolish we are not to accept the beautiful covering of God’s protection in any situation we are in.
The Christmas season has begun, and the shops are crammed with gifts, overshadowing the real reason for why we are celebrating as shoppers are encouraged to forget restraint and spend, spend, spend. We lose sight of the fact that we are the recipients of the most incredible gift ever given to man and by the Heavenly Gift Giver, our Heavenly Father. His gift of his son, Jesus Christ would surpass any of the gifts already given to the nation of Israel. He was to be the long-awaited Messiah, the deliverer of the sacred gift of forgiveness the one who would allow us to have no barrier between us and the Father.
Several years ago, when I was visiting relatives in Australia, my sister took me to a heritage farm that was still functioning and using the old equipment used by the first settlers and the farm is now funded by the Government and turned into a tourist destination. I was fascinated to see two cows yoked together pulling a wooden plough. When they stopped, visitors were able to ask questions to the farm worker. I couldn’t help feeling sorry for the cows and asked him was it hard to put them together with the yoke. I was surprised by his answer. “Not at all”, he replied. “In fact, we always put the same cows together and they form a bond with each other, and the yoke is not heavy, and you can see when two are together they can pull the load so much more easily”.
Here in Canada we are going into winter and the days rapidly become shorter and the dark nights longer. As the darkness comes, I feel my own darkness stronger and almost overpowering me. One of my daughters gave me a set of three large battery, operated candles. They look exactly like real candles and when they light up one cannot tell the difference. Last week another daughter set the timer for the batteries to automatically come on as dusk begins to turn to darkness and a day later, I was once again overcome with my own darkness when suddenly the candles turned on and light flooded the room. Then Jesus’ words also flooded the room and I remembered his promise to light up any darkness that threatened us and comfort also flooded my heart as I realised that he was with me.
When John the Baptist, was heralding the coming of the Saviour, the long, awaited Messiah, he described him as the true light that will give light to everyone.
We had an interesting question in our recent Bible study recently that asked:
Belonging to somebody gives one a sense of love and acceptance, a feeling of safety, a sense of having somebody to lean on, a feeling of comfort during tough times, a sense of peace.
the family. I belong to God’s family, I am accepted just as I am, I have a loving Father who cares for me and protects me, and I have a huge family of believers who are my brothers and sisters. Learning to live in this family is a growing experience and as Paul points out we need to be clothed in humility and patience and most of all forgiveness, so the world observes how differently the family of God behaves, because of the bond that holds them together is their love for the Jesus Christ.
We have just celebrated Thanksgiving here in Canada. Families gathered for dinners of roast turkey and pumpkin pie. Stopping to give thanks to our Heavenly Father was the original meaning of this celebration, but too often lots of food and family fun become the main attraction. Many years ago, my husband, who was a dentist, received a letter in the mail form one of his patients at Thanksgiving. His patient was a Christian and he was writing to thank my husband for his kind and careful treatment. He added at the bottom of the letter that this Thanksgiving he was going to remember those people in his life he wanted to thank. My husband and I were very touched by the letter, a good reminder for us to stop and thank people in our lives.
I was thinking of Paul’s words as I was preparing for this Thanksgiving and was prompted to stop whatever I was doing, and think seriously of all the friends I had and realised I wasn’t thanking Our Heavenly Father for them and then I thought of people that were not actually friends, but who I came across and thought of my husband’s patient. Have I thanked my family Doctor lately? What about the person who delivers my paper, have I left a note of thanks? We have a janitor in our building, do I thank him for cleaning so well?
We sing a beautiful song at our church, “Open The Eyes Of My Heart, Lord”, which is taken from Paul’s expression in his letter to the Ephesians. It is very thought, provoking if we start to think deeply about it. In our present society, outward appearances assume the upmost focus in our Western world. Constantly the media blasts us with messages of how we look to the outside community in which we live, what clothes we should wear to impress others, not only clothes signs of how successful we are need to be shown by lovely homes, and expensive cars. We must display happiness, even if we are breaking up inside. We are reluctant to show the world our true selves and constantly pretend so we fit into what society expects.
problems of the day, but she has a short prayer to God and then spends time listening to him.
I had the lovely task a few weeks ago of minding my seven-year-old grandson for the day and just like all countless grandmothers before me, I spent the day spoiling him. Firstly, we walked to McDonalds hamburger shop for lunch, then to the ice cream shop for a huge ice cream and then of course to a toy store, where we left with a present, by the time we wandered back to my place it was mid-afternoon and as a special treat he was allowed to watch cartoons on the T.V. When his mother came to pick him up he announced loudly, “I want to live with Nana.” I tried to explain to him that was not possible as I lived in an apartment and not near his school and was getting too old to look after a little boy every day. He just looked sadly at his mother and said, dramatically, “Nana has abandoned me”. How he knew that word I don’t know, but of course I consoled him by telling him that I loved him and another time we would have another fun day together.
When one of my daughters was a little girl, she was fascinated with water and I remember one incident when all my three daughters were playing in our garden, my eldest daughter ran inside to tell me that the youngest had managed to turn on the hose and was busy hosing herself with the water. When I came outside, she was laughing with delight as the water soaked her hair and of course all her clothes. She was drenched from head to foot! 
Jesus talks about this amazing love in terms of water when he is talking to the Samaritan woman at the well when he asks her for a drink of water. She is surprised by this request, as he is a Jew and Jews did not associate with Samaritans. She is more surprised when he talks about living water and asks him to explain; 
God was sending a message that his Son would allow the Father’s love to surround us and we could take delight in that incredible knowledge. 