Genesis 4:6-7
The Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it.”
The modern term for acceptance is validation. People need to be accepted. But they want to be accepted by man, not God. They are wrong! Man is fickle. Out of site out of mind, no matter what you have done for them. How do we get accepted by the only One in the universe who matters?
Acceptance by God is hopefully the goal of all of us, because He already has accepted us. He knew all your bad things you were going to do before thefoundation of the world, and He chose you and died for you anyway.
History has taught us that some want acceptance from God so bad they are even willing to kill for it. God isn’t so dramatic though. He has already accepted us, through His Son. There is nothing we can do to make Him accept us more nor less. We have the choice of accepting Him or rejecting Him, but His desire is that we accept Him.
Basically you accept Him because He accepts you through His Son’s sacrifice and then out of gratitude you only want to do the things that are acceptable to Him. Cain was under the law. Religion is man reaching for God. Futile! Grace is God reaching for man. Now that is Good News!!
God isn’t looking for great singular actions as much as He is looking at your love, heart, honesty, charity, decisions, and choices. Decisions to obey Jesus, to be a good testimony (even when no one is watching), to be honest and faithful are quite seemingly small and inconsequential things. However, together they will get you enormous rewards. Following Christ isn’t a Sunday-school prayer but a lifetime commitment of no compromise. Being saved (accepted) isn’t noisy or showy, it’s just a fact that you are a friend of God.
I personally don’t think where you worship God has much to do with anything. God wants us as believers to be together. That’s a pretty broad paint brush. I know people in the worst possible churches (in my opinion) that have the most marvelous walks with God, and people who go to the best church (again imho) acting like little devils outside of the building.
Bad compromises can lead to bad decisions, which lead to opportunities for sin to take hold and lead us down the path of destruction. That’s why we must take control and rule over our thoughts and actions if we are true followers of Christ.
It’s a choice. Even when we make a wrong turn, (sin) God knows if we are choosing Him in our hearts. Love covers a multitude of sins. A lot of times we make the wrong decisions but God in His infinite mercy accepts us and gives us a chance to make it right.
It’s like the law. Winnie and I got in trouble with the law. Our neighbor called us and we went over and her infant was lying lifeless in the hammock. It’s little body was warm and flexible so I gave it mouth to mouth until a spider came out of it’s mouth and into mine. We took the baby to the nearest hospital. They stopped me from carrying the baby into the ER and told me to take it to themorgue. We took the baby to the morgue and we were detained by the police because it is illegal to transport a body in your own car. We explained everything and were eventually released because they saw that the desire of our hearts were for good not for bad.
Choose God! Sure you are going to make mistakes, you are going to compromise your walk with God. It’s ok. Talk to God, He is crazy about you and chooses you.
We deal with the kids here with velvet gloves. We talk more than reprimand because that’s how God does it. We accept them no matter how bad they are because they are our kids.
Joshua 24:15 …choose this day whom you will serve…. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.