“Our Father who is in heaven, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” Matthew 6:9-10
Like this one, the previous three posts have been on acceptance…specifically on acceptance of God’s plan for us as individuals. When we study the concept of acceptance, our concerned is usually a particular circumstance. We tend to lean in that direction because it is easier to deal with things separately and the more monumental issues tend to come one at a time. However, the truth is that we rarely deal with one any trial in a vacuum. Realistically we must accept God’s plan for us as a series of events or layers of struggle. The primary focus may be a death or significant illness; however, there may also be care for others. Another aspect may be how those factors affect our relationships and other responsibilities. Once we have factored in our personal issues, we start moving out into our church family, our community, our nation and the world at large. There are many things in the world today that are just difficult to comprehend. Just as Christ warned there are “wars and rumors of war”, the world as a whole is drifting farther away from God’s truth and/or rejecting it. The political climate in our nation is one of strife and the current candidates for president offer no real hope. The Christian community is under attack in the U.S. like never before. Some churches and religious leaders are setting aside biblical truth under pressure to conform. In short, there is much to be unsettled about. It often leaves us wondering where God is, what He has planned and how it will affect us. While church, community, national and global concerns may seem less personal and traumatic, they are still part of God’s plan for our lives and we must accept them just as our more private concerns.
In order to accept all that impacts us and every level on which we are stressed, we need to step back and rethink our view. In the book “Shattered Dreams: God’s Unexpected Path to Joy”, Larry Crabb uses the analogy of a movie. Because we generally measure things in terms of their effect on us, we often look at our lives like a movie in which we have the starring role. However, the accurate view is that we need to consider the events in our lives in the context of all of history. When we shift our outlook, we quickly realize that it’s not about us. It’s about God. The only constant in history is God. In that context, our lives which are described as “a vapor” are more akin to an extremely short walk on part in the movie. That shift also causes us to view the events of our lives as well as church, community and global events in the context of God’s universal plan. To be sure, God loves us, values us, has a plan for us, and uses us as channels of His grace, but the reality is that all of this fits into a much larger design. It is God’s purposes that weave the lives of all mankind together to accomplish His will. It is an orchestration far beyond our comprehension because we neither have all of the details nor are we able to understand all that God knows and does. Isaiah 55:8-9 puts it this way: “’For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,’ declares the Lord. ‘For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts.’” With this understanding we shift the focus from ourselves to God and open the door to contentment and joy seeking to serve our Lord in whatever circumstances He places us.
In order to effect this change we must rely on two things: God’s sovereignty and His character. Setting our hope on God’s sovereignty is believing that nothing can impede God’s desire. David blesses God for this fact in 1 Chronicles 29:10-12 “Blessed are You, O Lord God of Israel our father, forever and ever. Yours, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, indeed everything that is in the heavens and the earth; Yours is the dominion, O Lord, and You exalt Yourself as head over all. Both riches and honor come from You, and You rule over all, and in Your hand is power and might; and it lies in Your hand to make great and to strengthen everyone.” Job puts it succinctly: “I know that You can do all things and that no purpose of Yours can be thwarted.” (Job 42:2) It is relinquishing control to God that frees us to be content and joyful because we no longer need to direct the order of things. To do this with confidence, we must trust God. It is His character that allows this. By drawing near to God, we understand who He is and what is important to Him so that when we read passages like Isaiah 45:7 “The One forming light and creating darkness, causing well-being and creating calamity; I am the Lord who does all these.” and Psalm 135:6 “Whatever the Lord pleases, He does, in heaven and in earth, in the seas and in all deeps.” we view them in the context of His goodness, His love, His faithfulness, etc.
What does acceptance mean to you? Whether considering your personal circumstances or the world at large, there are two ways we can view it. The first is to yield, submit, or give up. As humans, we usually view these things as negative as they suggest the loss of something. Yet in accepting all of the events and circumstances God plans for us, there really is no loss. We never had control, so we didn’t lose anything there. Submitting is not sacrificing our will but rather placing God’s will above our own. Again, we have not lost anything; we just placed it in the proper order. To give up implies that we have thrown in the towel which is not the case at all. The other connotation is to receive as in accepting a gift. To me, this seems to be the better definition. Acceptance is receiving the unique plan lovingly designed for us. It may be a life of suffering, relative ease or something in between, but we each are given a plan that we were created for, designed to implement and it is both for God’s glory and our good when we seek to live by God’s standards. In accepting God’s plan, we are content to serve obediently and look for God’s hand at work as Joseph did; we keep an eternal perspective and trust God’s ability to work out the details as Mary did; and we completely and willing submit our will to the will of the Father as Christ did. When we accept the cup God gives us, we can be content and at peace…not because there is no difficulty, but rather because we have a relationship with our God and trust that He will be with us no matter what we face. Further, acceptance is not a one-time event, it is an ongoing and daily process as we grow in grace and our circumstances change. However, when we allow it to become a habit, we open ourselves to a better way of living and draw closer to God.
May God’s will be done in your life, in my life, and on earth as it is in Heaven and “now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen” (1 Timothy 1:17)