Four Spiritual Laws about God’s Acceptance

1. God loves you and created you to belong to Him. He created you to experience and know His acceptance and inclusion as a connected, valuable, and irreplaceable member of His family.

“I pray for them. I do not pray for the world but for those whom You have given Me, for they are Yours. 10 And all Mine are Yours, and Yours are Mine, and I am glorified in them. (John 17:9-10 NKJV)

In this passage, Jesus is praying to God the Father about us, the people for whom He was about to bleed and die. Jesus offers eternal life (a relationship with God) for all who will receive Him, know Him, trust Him, obey Him, and submit to His teachings, leadership, and commandments.

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, 4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, 5 having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, 6 to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.” (Ephesians 1:3-5 NKJV)

2. At some point (or level) all people have rejected God and the wonderful relationship that He offers, so our original connection that we once had with God has been severed. This breach of trust that broke our connection with God had left us feeling rejected, isolated, abandoned, cast aside, and ostracized.

“For rebellion is as the sin of divination, and insubordination is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, He has also rejected you from being king.” (1 Samuel 15:23 NASB1995)

When we believe that what God says in His Word does not apply to us, or when we reject what God commands or what He says about a matter, then we forfeit our ability to have influence, authority, order, peace, and stability in our lives. When we reject the truth of God by doing things our own way apart from Him, then we may face the sting and pain of rejection, failure, setback, disappointment, and defeat.

“If anyone hears My sayings and does not keep them, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world. 48 He who rejects Me and does not receive My sayings, has one who judges him; the word I spoke is what will judge him at the last day. 49 For I did not speak on My own initiative, but the Father Himself who sent Me has given Me a commandment as to what to say and what to speak.” (John 12:47-49 NASB1995)

Jesus Himself does not condemn us when we mess up or fail to take Him seriously. However, we still experience condemnation, rejection, guilt, shame, and fear from our own accusing consciences as a byproduct of not listening to God, not taking Him seriously (at His word), or disobeying Him (see Romans 2:1-16; Revelation 12:9-11).

If our rebellion, rejection, guilt, shame, fear, and accusing conscience keeps us separated from God the Father’s love and accountable to His divine judgment, then how can our rebellion, rejection, guilt, fear, a tormented (or stressed) conscience, and condemnation be removed?

3. Jesus Christ is God’s only solution for rejection. Through Him alone we can experience God’s unconditional love and acceptance into His family.

The Father loves the Son and has given all things into His hand. 36 He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.” (John 3:35-36 NASB1995)

“He is despised and rejected by men, a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. 4 Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.” (Isaiah 53:3-4 NKJV)

And He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. (Mark 8:31 NKJV)

4. It is not just enough to know these truths. We must receive Jesus as Savior and Lord and to know God’s acceptance at the core level of our being. Then alone can we be free and joyful in spite of any rejection that we experience in life.

“He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. 11 He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. 12 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name:” (John 1:10-12 NKJV)

“But now in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.” (Ephesians 2:13 NASB1995)

“So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God’s household,” (Ephesians 2:19 NASB1995)

The following is a suggested prayer for beginning this journey of freedom from rejection. One’s actual words do not matter compared to the attitude of your heart:

Father,

Thank You for creating me to enjoy a relationship with You where I belong to You. [Psalm 100:4; John 17:3] I praise You for fashioning me and for declaring me a masterpiece [Psalm 139:13-16; Ephesians 2:10].

You created me to be Yours–to be Your beloved child and highly valued possession with full access to Your protection and provision as I cling to You in trust and obedience. [1 Peter 2:4-10] Thank You for valuing me at a great price–at the cost of Your very Son, Jesus [1 Corinthians 6:20; 7:23; 1 Peter 1:17-19]

I choose to believe that Jesus was rejected so that I could be accepted. I recognize and renounce the ways that I have rejected Your leadership in my life; it is clear to me that I have broken Your commandments as I have not loved You with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength.

[Feel free to be honest and specific with God about anything on your heart that is keeping you from feeling close to Him or in right standing with Him].

Now I choose to turn away from those old ways of thinking and behaving in my life that were not pleasing to You. I confess aloud that “Jesus is Lord;” I give You “the driver’s seat” of my life as I submit to Your words, commandments, and plan for my life.

I choose to believe in my heart that You (Father God) raised Jesus Christ from the dead. Thank You that the same Holy Spirit who raised Jesus Christ from the dead has come to live inside of me. Now I am adopted into Your family, accepted, and celebrated by You! [see Luke 15; Romans 8:14-17]

Father, thank You for making me free from rejection. I love You and agree with what You say about me. As I grow rooted and grounded in Your love, thank You for making me more like You!

In Jesus’ name, so be it!

Conclusion:

“Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, 7 having been firmly rooted and now being built up in Him and established in your faith, just as you were instructed, and overflowing with gratitude.” (Colossians 2:6-7 NASB1995)

“Now may the God who gives perseverance and encouragement grant you to be of the same mind with one another according to Christ Jesus, 6 so that with one accord you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. 7 Therefore, accept one another, just as Christ also accepted us to the glory of God.” (Romans 15:5-7 NASB1995)

Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake.12 Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. (Matthew 5:11-12 NKJV)

Four point-format based on Would You Like to Know God Personally? A version of the Four Spiritual Laws, written by Bill Bright.