In Jesus, We Have Acceptance

And acceptance is the answer to all my problems
today. When I am disturbed, it is because I find some
person, place, thing, or situation—some fact of my life
—unacceptable to me, and I can find no serenity until
I accept that person, place, thing, or situation as being
exactly the way it is supposed to be at this moment.
Nothing, absolutely nothing, happens in God’s world
by mistake. (Big Book --pg 449)

I used to read this passage religiously. If I just learned to accept what was going on in this life, then everything would work out just fine, right?

The Bible gives a similar verse:

"Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him: but the just shall live by his faith." (Habakkuk 2: 4)

The faith that we live by, though, is not our faith:

"I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me." (Galatians 2: 20)

In fact, any talk of "acceptance" must start and end with Christ:

"To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved." (Ephesians 1: 6)

and

"This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief." (1 Timothy 1: 15)

and

"What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?

"He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?" (Romans 8: 31-32)

We accept  what Jesus has done for us, God the Father accepts us fully in His Son, and the we accept all other things that we need through Him.

Only in Jesus is "acceptance" the answer to all my problems.