No, Acceptance Is NOT The Answer to All of Our Problems

Alcoholics Anonymous, Page 449:

“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.”

I was thinking about this passage last night, Thanksgiving night, while taking a trip with a friend to visit other friends for Thanksgiving Dinner.

This passage is all wrong. Wrong on so many levels.

There are so many things in our lives which we should not accept!

We should not accept child abuse.

We should not accept homosexuality being forced on young people, being forced onto our culture.

We should not accept people committing repeated acts of wrongdoing.

We should not look at all our circumstances as ordained by God.

He is in control of our lives if we allow Him, if we allow His grace to minister in our lives.

For the rest of the world, however, it is clear that they are not under the guidance of God's goodness or His dominion.

But this notion that "Acceptance is the answer to all my problems" simply does not add up. No, we should not simply tolerate everything. That is wrong.

We should not simply say "Que sera sera" in the face of injustice and evil. There are bad things happening in our world that require a real response. There is no excuse for pushing this into "Oh Well. That's just the way things are!"

If We Still Fear, It's That We Don't Know How Much He Loves Us

When I was convicted just for sitting in a city council meeting, a great degree of fear and revulsion washed over me.

What was it that had caused all that fear, that turmoil?

The sense that God was not on the job, that He was not working behind the scenes, that He was not taking care of me.

When I began to realize the importance of assessing God's love for me based on the Cross, not on my circumstances, it became easier for me to ask God a different question about what I was going through:

"Lord, I know that you are working good for me in the midst of this hardship. Just give me a window into what you are doing."

The verse could not say it better:

"And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose." (Romans 8:28)

That's the most important thing, really. We need to know and believe in His love for us.

This is hard for me. I want all my problems solved. I want to have no legal, medical, professional challenges, whatever.

Then again, the account in Mark 4 always serves as a reminder to me that quiescence around us is not necessarily conducive to peace within us:

"39And he arose, and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. 40And he said unto them, Why are ye so fearful? how is it that ye have no faith? 41And they feared exceedingly, and said one to another, What manner of man is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?" (Mark 4:39-41)

One would have thought that after Jesus rebuked the terrible storm that was threatening His disciples, that His disciples would have been grateful and relieved.

Instead, they "feared exceedingly." Isn't that awful? Where was their faith? Where indeed?!

They did not believe the following:

1. They did not see Jesus as Savior, but only as Master, Example, Teacher.
2. They did not believe that He cared for them.
3. They feared that they were going to perish, when Life Himself was in the boat with them, and there was no way that any of them were going down!

In the same way, I share a similar regret with my loving Father. Time and again I have seen him come through for me, and yet I still struggle to rest and believe that He is taking care of me, even in the midst of some terrible storms. I admit that I want all of my problems solved first.

But that is not faith, and such confirmation of good outcomes is simply not enough.

Indeed, I want to know more of how much my loving Father loves me. I want to understand further how much His Son loves me. I want to receive a greater revelation of God's love for me through His Holy Spirit!

How I Learned to Rest -- What That Really Means

"Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." (Matthew 11:28)

Jesus really is my rest.

He is not some figment of my imagination.

Jesus, my life, my spouse, my very breath, is taking care of me every step of the way.

For the longest time, I did not know, I was not able to rest and believe that Christ Jesus was indeed on the job.

I struggled with this. When people said mean things about me, or when I was maligned in print or on media, I sometimes doubted that my Loving Father could or would take care of it.

This lack of faith is indeed quite troubling.

That's exactly what Jesus chided His disciples for:

"40And he said unto them, Why are ye so fearful? how is it that ye have no faith?" (Mark 4:40)

Where indeed?

They didn't not see Him as He truly was -- as He truly is!

He cared for them!

"Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time: 7Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you." (1 Peter 5:6-7)

God wants us to come to Him. God wants us to believe on Him!

That He is -- and That He rewards those who seek Him!

"6But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him." (Hebrews 11:6)

It truly is a life of believing, not doing; of receiving, not achieving; of resting, not striving.

Why is this so hard for the Church, for the Body of Christ?

We don't understand how bad the sin problem is. We think that Jesus came to make bad men good.

WRONG.

He came to make dead men live.

And when we realize that He is our life, resting in Him is just that only way to go!

I can now rest and believe that if I have suffered wrong, if I have failed, if I have suffered humiliation at the hands of another, that my Loving Father, my Daddy God is on the job.

I know that my sins will never stop Him from loving me, that His grace will never stop superabounding in my life, especially when I fail.

Adam and Eve ran away because of their sin. But Because of the Son, I can run to my Loving Father even when I sin!

And His love is so rich, so ravishing, so refreshing, that I have no further desire for sin.

I may not be sinless, but I sin less!

I am no longer restless, but I rest more!

Seeing Him Taking Care of Me, Taking Care of Everything

"Then said she, Sit still, my daughter, until thou know how the matter will fall: for the man will not be in rest, until he have finished the thing this day."(Ruth 3:18)

For too long a time, I saw God as a made-up character, a person, an idea.

I would talk to God, but I never expected Him to talk back to me.

Today, I recognize how real He is, how active He is.

How very much He is on the job.

This is so cool, so real, so simple, and yet for so long, it was so elusive.

I used to think that His presence or absence all depended on how I was feeling or what I was thinking.

This is so crazy, and it was such a stronghold for me. I could not imagine my way out of my problems, and yet that is precisely how I treated my loving Father, His Loving Son, and the loving Holy Spirit.

Father, your presence in my life never depended on me.

It was always about Your love for me.

This presence has turned into a greater knowledge of how active, how real, how effective you are!

For a long time, I would get angry. I was convinced that I was on my own in this world, and that it was up to me to fight for whatever I needed to fight for.

I was in such bondage. Yet God is separate, not living in my head.

Wow! I cannot believe how simple it is to write this. And yet for the longest time, I often wondered, worried, fretted that God may or may not be on my side.

I thank God for Pastor Joseph Prince and his ministry. It truly is all about seeing Jesus, knowing that He is alive, active, invested, working hard in us and through us and all around us.

Thank you for your patience with me, my Loving Father. I had so much that I had to learn, and you stayed with me. Thank you!