God Speaking

“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.