Pre-approved

Have you ever been pre-approved for a loan? With our recent move from New Mexico to Tennessee, we needed a pre-approval letter from our bank to make an offer on a home to buy. The seller wanted to confirm we could get a loan for our offered amount. We provided our bank with financial information and employment history. Afterward, we received an approval letter and purchased our home.

There’s another type of approval I tend to seek. Acceptance from others. Am I alone in this? I hope people will like me and want to get to know me better. I’d like to believe that once they’ve met me, they will approve of me. But I read something this week that reminded me of something I need to focus on more often.

I’m doing a Bible study called, Galatians Accepted & Free, by Jada Edwards. After I watch a video on Study Gateway, I work through the study guide. In Session Three’s Opening Group Activity, Jada asked, “In what ways does knowing you’re pre-approved through Christ bring hope and healing?”

Why do I bother to seek approval from others if I’m already pre-approved through Christ? He’s the one who matters. And if He’s chosen me as His child, why do I exhaust and stress myself trying to gain acceptance from others?  

Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ
to be holy and without fault in his eyes.
Ephesians 1:4, NLT 

If we’ve accepted Christ into our lives and believe in our hearts that he died and rose again, he has accepted us because of our faith in him. We don’t need to seek anyone else’s approval. We don’t need more social media likes or to receive pats on our backs for doing something awesome. If God recognizes us as his child, what can beat that? He already thinks we’re awesome!

I need to keep this in mind when I’m tempted to gain someone’s acceptance or when I meet someone for the first time and hope to make a good impression. God already approves of me.

My hope rests on what Christ provided for me on the cross. He gave his life for me and for you so we can live eternally with him. We are now pre-approved before we meet someone new. We no longer need to win their approval too. Their acceptance of us doesn’t matter. Christ proved his love for us when he died. He matters.

Am I now trying to win the approval of human beings, or of God?
Or am I trying to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ.
Galatians 1:10, NIV 

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Photo by Giulia Bertelli - Unsplash

Walking As Jesus Walked

Do you have days when your attitude needs to change? I do. This past week. Then I read these verses about walking as Jesus walked.

But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him. He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked.

1 John 2:5-6, NKJV

I don’t recall Jesus having a poor attitude.

To me, the above verses say that when we keep God’s word, we are showing our obedience to Him and that we truly know and love Him. Through our obedience, His love is then perfected or made complete in us. If we claim we are His, we ought to walk in the same way that Jesus walked by following His example and living as He did.

How did Jesus walk? What examples did He leave for us to follow?

Here are a few instances of Jesus offering love, acceptance, and forgiveness.

In John 8 we read of the woman caught in adultery. The Pharisees wanted to stone her. Jesus told the crowd that whoever had never sinned could throw the first stone. The Pharisees slipped away, and only Jesus and the woman remained. He didn’t condemn her—He forgave her.

We read the story of the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well in John 4. Jesus didn’t criticize her for having had five husbands and living with a man who she was not married to. He accepted her and forgave her.

And what better model is there about forgiveness than when Jesus forgave His accusers and killers?

Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.

Luke 23:34, NKJV

Besides offering love, acceptance, and forgiveness, Jesus modeled obedience when He surrendered Himself to God’s will. After the Last Supper, Jesus prayed this on the Mount of Olives:

Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me;
nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done.

Luke 22:42, NKJV

His time of arrest, suffering, and death soon followed.

Jesus modeled servanthood in John 13 when he washed his disciples’ feet and when he carried out the ultimate sacrifice—His death on the cross.

Jesus also met the needs of others by sharing God’s truths, calming the storm, and feeding the hungry.

Am I called to do any less?

Will it be easy? No. But so worth it!

Lord, I desire to keep your word and walk as you walked—in love, acceptance, forgiveness, obedience, surrender, servanthood, and by meeting the needs of others. Guide my steps, Lord. I desire to always abide in You.

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Photo by Arek Adeoye - Unsplash

A Blemished Rose

In my debut novel, Only a Glimpse, roses play a significant part in Blake Conner’s life. Roses are dear to him because they were special to his wife who died a few years before my story takes place.

In an encounter between Keedryn Reynolds (my heroine) and Blake’s daughter, Allison, they discuss a painting in his office which was painted by his wife—a crystal vase filled with beautiful roses of various colors.

“The gifted artist captured intricate detail in each petal. The painting included one blemished rose. The rest were perfect.”

Keedryn asks Blake’s daughter about the painting, and Allison shares the story of the blemished rose and why her mom painted it that way.

“She’d say this rose represents us. Blemished. But God doesn’t notice. He’ll accept us as we are if we’ll come to Him. He’ll surround us with His beauty, goodness, and love and wash away our blemishes.”

Some may feel they need to clean up their lives before they can come to Christ. But if we believe and surrender our lives to Him, the Lord welcomes us to come just as we are. If we confess our sins and follow Him, He’ll wash away those sins, and embrace us with a new life—one of love, acceptance, and forgiveness.

But the Scriptures declare that we are all prisoners of sin, so we
receive God’s promise of freedom only by believing in Jesus Christ.
Galatians 3:22 (NLT)

But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to
forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness.
1 John 1:9 (NLT)

Now repent of your sins and turn to God, so that
your sins may be wiped away.
Acts 3:19 (NLT)

Is there something in your life needing to be confessed? Do you feel you need to be perfect in order to live for Christ? Come to the Lord and allow Him to wash away your blemishes, and enter the beauty of His love, acceptance, and forgiveness.

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Photo by Jeremy Bishop - Unsplash