A Prayer for the One In search of Acceptance – Your Each day Prayer

A Prayer for the One In search of Acceptance
By Alicia Searl

“I provides you with a brand new coronary heart and put a brand new spirit in you; I’ll take away from you your coronary heart of stone and offer you a coronary heart of flesh. And I’ll put my Spirit in you and transfer you to comply with my decrees and watch out to maintain my legal guidelines. Then you’ll reside within the land I gave your ancestors; you’ll be my individuals, and I will likely be your God.” Ezekiel 36:26-28

All of us have a deep must belong and slot in. Now we have an interior want to really feel accepted, flaws and all. However what does it actually imply to “be accepted?” The phrase accepted, by definition, means to be extremely favored, to be given approval, or to indicate recognition of being right. Right here inside lies a slippery slope. After we search acceptance, we merely search approval for “our view,” not God’s. Let me make clear. What is suitable if I believe one thing is okay and even good, however you suppose it’s not okay and even horrible? On this case, acceptance turns into a private instrument to solid judgments and labels.

This performed out within the Outdated Testomony when the Israelites had been held in captivity in Babylon. This resulted from their disobedience, turning away from God whereas hardening their hearts. That they had develop into egocentric and suffering from the methods of their flesh, worshiping false gods, residing out sinful life, and priding themselves on accepting their very own truths. This sounds a bit much like the present local weather of our society at present. Whereas all of us crave acceptance, it usually derives from our personal sinful nature and look at of acceptance. However our God, filled with compassion, confirmed His mercy and charm upon the individuals of Israel by concentrating on their hearts. He softens their hearts by main them again to the reality of His acceptance. God’s acceptance is roofed in His unfailing love. And pal, our God can do the identical for us!

The reality is after we put religion in Jesus, our stone-cold coronary heart that seeks after our personal wishes and acceptance is redesigned by our good and gracious Father. God softens our hearts, promising by no means to solid us out of His household. Whereas we’ll nonetheless bend to the methods of our flesh, with God, we could be absolutely identified, absolutely accepted, and deeply cherished. Nonetheless, as His kids, that doesn’t imply He accepts our sins. He loves us an excessive amount of to be confined by these insufferable chains. In our transformation from our outdated self to our new self, God crops inside us a coronary heart that wishes to hunt His will and His approach. As our Creator, He’s frequently pursuing our hearts and chiseling away at our tough edges to make us extra within the picture of Christ. So, reasonably than searching for acceptance from others, which is able to bend in direction of our sinful nature, we have to search God’s acceptance by way of His unconditional love, which is able to cowl a magnitude of sin.

Let’s pray:
Gracious God,
We’re so grateful and abundantly blessed to be known as The one that you love kids. Please assist us search Your acceptance and stroll in a approach that honors You, Lord. Thank You for Your faithfulness and compassion for Your chosen individuals of Israel. It may give us the reassurance we have to know that even after we could fail and fall into sinful patterns, Your mercy is larger, and You continue to pursue our hearts, calling us again to Your acceptance.

This world at the moment appears to be giving technique to searching for their very own private type of acceptance, so with humble hearts, we ask that You please shed gentle within the darkness. Reveal that Your acceptance is crammed with goodness, mercy, grace, and unconditional love. We carry our hurting nation to You, O God. We’re in a really comparable place to the individuals of Israel. We have to change course and want You to awaken individuals by softening hearts. Recreate a love for Your Phrase and Fact. Place daring convictions inside the partitions of our congregations and lead us again to the trail of righteousness. O Lord, we wish to want Your acceptance and search Your will and approach for our lives. It’s in Your Holy and Treasured identify I pray. Amen.

Picture Credit score: ©Getty Pictures/Andrew_Mayovskyy