Monday, June 09, 2008
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Self Acceptance
Here's a nice devotional from "Our Daily Bread."Accepting Oneself
By Vernon C. Grounds - "Liberating Truth," Our Daily Bread 6/9/08
He made us accepted in the Beloved. —Ephesians 1:6
An unmarried missionary had been disparaging herself. She was unhappy with her life in general, but she was especially displeased with what she felt was her low level of spiritual growth.
One morning she looked searchingly at herself in the mirror. Then, very slowly, she said, “God, I thank You that I am myself and can never be anybody else.”
That was her moment of liberating self-acceptance. She realized that by God’s design she was an absolutely unique person, a Christ-redeemed human being who could never be replaced or duplicated.
Do you condemn yourself because you aren’t as spiritual as you think you ought to be? Do you see yourself as a second-rate disciple, lacking the gifts and graces possessed by fellow believers who seem to be models of prayer, witness, and service? We can rise above the mood of self-rejection and enjoy grateful self-acceptance when we put our lives into the nail-pierced hands of Jesus. “In Him we have redemption through His blood, [and] the forgiveness of sins” (Eph. 1:7).
We are accepted and chosen by Him (vv.4-6).
If the Lord has accepted us, surely we can accept ourselves! That’s the liberating truth.
----------------------------------My question: What inclines us to disparage ourselves?
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Comments (2)
You're right. Coming to grips with who we are, including our weaknesses, is an important step to understanding the love of God. Self-awareness of our sins leads to the blessed state of "brokenness" -- knowing our faults and realizing that God still loves us. I think one of the great problems facing the church in this country is that we have lost our collective sense of brokenness; forgiveness becomes a once-and-done thing. Then we feel totally free to turn around and condemn our neighbors instead of seeing them as people as needy for forgiveness as we are. This, as one writer put it, is preaching the gospel to ourselves every day. We are "far worse than we ever thought and are fare more loved than we ever imagined."
1. If we're not like everyone else, then we won't be popular!
2. That what it means to be humble, right? =o
3. What if it wasn't God's BEST for me?
/sarcasm
Those reasons seem to be pretty popular, lol.