Devotions for growing your acceptance muscle

Devotions for growing your acceptance muscle.

Your devotion times are good for holding your heart open to God’s presence allowing Him to release the places you are holding on too tightly. Growing in acceptance is growing in God’s rest in your life.

Acceptance. The act of taking or receiving something offered. Life offers us many things every day, some positive, some negative. What do we do with them? We can choose to grumble like the Israelites did after leaving Egypt – “What? No water to drink?” or “We want meat like we had in Egypt.” Or we can choose to be like Jesus when He said to the Father, “Not my will, but Yours be done.” He chose acceptance.

Acceptance doesn’t mean that I like what happens, or that I even find it pleasurable. Getting stuck in traffic or losing my subway ticket I don’t really consider enjoyable at all. Not even amusing. However, yelling at other drivers and arguing with other people does not change the situation. It may make me feel better to “blow off some steam,” but eventually I have to accept things as they are and move on. It is what it is. Move on.

Now of course when it comes to any abuse situation, none of this applies. As a disclaimer, all physical, verbal, or sexual abuse needs to be rejected, not accepted. Remove yourself from it or find help to do so. In this particular article, I’m referring more to daily life events, non-life-threatening scenarios and irritations.

It is what it is. It’s raining. It’s too late. It’s not the right size. It was an accident. It was denied. It hurt. Sometimes there are deep emotions from life events. We react, we cry, we get angry, we feel loss. This necessitates the need to process, especially if we are triggered. We don’t want to “stuff” these emotions and deny their existence, because that would be devaluing our heart and who God made us to be; but we do want to sort through them and keep moving forward. There are some times when we can simply let go. We come to terms with the situation quickly, establish that “it is what it is,” accept it, then move on. However, there are other times when we get stuck. If that happens, simply acknowledge that and know we may need some prayer ministry or counseling to be able to let go and move on. Accept where you are without condemnation or judgement. “I’m stuck”- it is what it is.

When we accept and acknowledge things where they are we can more easily assess the situation and seek the Lord for the next move. Whether it’s letting go, forgiving, repenting, or looking for the next step to take, Father God is there to keep you moving forward in your walk with Him. There may be a blizzard outside or you forgot to buy milk – whatever. Acceptance. It is what it is. Move on.