acceptance – Amy Linnea

You, God, are my God, earnestly I seek you; I thirst for you, my whole being longs for you, in a dry and parched land where there is no water. Psalm 63:1

David sought God with every fiber of his being.

David craved God. He longed for God as one longs for water when parched.

Like David’s longing for God, what do you seek?

What does your flesh cry out for?

What deep longing do you yearn to satisfy?

Love? Acceptance? Worth? Money? Power? Influence? Authority?

Or do you, too, long for God as David did?

Let’s go back to Psalm 63 and think about the last time you were thirsty. I mean really parched. Wasn’t that deep drink of water incredibly satisfying?

It’s as if when drinking it, your cells immediately cried out for joy.

Maybe you refilled your cup, drinking another entire glass just as quickly. You set the glass down and instantly felt better. Why? Because your human self is dependent on water and when your cells are deprived, they begin to shrivel up and die.

We were also created to crave God like our body craves water and nourishment. When we don’t have God in our life, we begin to crave other things to fill the empty space. Other things from the world like worth, acceptance, and love. And when we don’t choose God to fill our empty space, we begin to shrivel up and die.

Finding your worth in this world finds yourself bowing to your flesh instead of God.

Craving acceptance in this world finds yourself bowing to whims and fads instead of God.

Longing for love in this world will find yourself lonely and desperate as you seek the love from this world instead of God.

Allow God to fill you instead with Himself. Any area of your life where you feel that deep longing, give it to God. Tell Him what you’re longing and ask Him to help you.

As one who follows God, we know what to do. We know God’s living water is unlimited and always available.

Yet old habits are hard to stop. We often begin relying on ourselves when issues arise, instead of drinking from God’s powerful well of life.

Return to your first love: God. Write down or speak to Him all the ways you’ve neglected to put Him first. You know.

Repent. And ask Him to help you put Him first once again. He will. And the next time you’re tempted to live from within yourself alone, repent once more, asking Him to lead you. As you purposely place God first, it will become easier and easier to depend only on Him. And as He leads you, your soul will once again long only for Him.

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.” Mark 12:30-31

Anyone in your life unloveable? Anyone fit that description?

Family? Acquaintances? Coworkers?

Children come to mind.

At times they seem unloveable when demanding things their way.

When irritated, they can spew forth ugliness, wishing you’d disappear.

Fine. I’ll go.

But that’s not biblical. Not God’s way.

He wants you to stay, loving the unloveable.

Can you even imagine a harder assignment?

Not me. Goes against my every fiber.

We usually love others because we get things in return.

Love, acceptance, respect, you get the idea.

But loving the unloveable? Yikes, that’s a whole new arena.

Yet that’s what God calls us to do. Literally. We are called to love others, no matter the response.

Jesus is our example. He loved us without reserve.

Without compromise. Without question.

And He loves us still when we revert back to our sinful selves, choosing our flesh too many times to count.

In other words, when we, ourselves, are unloveable, God still loves us.

If you’re willing, partner with God. His power through us can begin our attempt to love those who distain us.

God’s love. Not yours.

At the end of the day, God will be glorified if you love even when others don’t deserve it.

Even if they roll their eyes, talk back, or wish upon your disappearance.

Ask God to fill you with Himself each day as you wear His identity for you.

Only then, will you fulfill His greatest commission: To love your neighbor as yourself.

May we witness God through our daily human reactions. And may God Himself be manifest through our human attempts at love as we place others before ourselves.