Rescue: Finding God In Life's ChallengesShembull

"Acceptance" 

“Yea though he slay me, yet I will trust Him.”

Job’s famous words are exactly where healing from your current situation begins. When the shock, anger, fear and hopelessness have worn off, when surrender has finally happened, acceptance is the logical and only next step on the road to restoration.

Too often we let our circumstances determine our attitude. When life is going as desired, we feel great about ourselves. And when life gets hard, our mood struggles. But acceptance means taking things as they are and patiently enduring through the current circumstances.  

Like many of the steps outlined to overcome a crisis situation in this devotional, acceptance requires developing an "I can do all things through Christ" attitude -- which is ONLY achieved by focusing on the “through Christ” part of that sentence.   We must rely on God’s power to strengthen us when weak, so we can slog through and adjust to changing conditions. 

Quite simply, we’ll learn today, this living-by-faith lifestyle requires trust. Mary had no choice but to trust when she accepted her role as the mother of the Son of God. 

Undoubtedly aware of the shame her pregnancy would bring to her and her family, she trusted God and held nothing back: “I am the Lord’s servant. Let everything you’ve said happen to me.” (Luke 1:38)   Mary’s lesson for us is that we must surrender our desire to control every situation and instead learn to rely solely on Him and trust Him to oversee us over any situation. If we believe He is working out His perfect plan for us, then through acceptance we will experience the joy that comes through obedience. 

Regardless of the circumstances of our day-to-day lives, when we surrender our control to the Lord and accept His plan for our lives (knowing He has our best interest at heart), we will then achieve the ultimate success of a follower of Christ – to be used as a vessel for His glory and be the hands and feet of Jesus on earth.