The Importance of Accepting Yourself by Joyce Meyer - posted October 31, 2013 And this [salvation] is not of yourselves [of your own doing, it came not through your own striving], but it is the gift of God. —Ephesians 2:8 In 1718, a young child named David Brainerd was born in Connecticut. David lost his father to death when the boy was only eight years old, and his mother died six years later, when he was fourteen. David inherited a large estate, but that could not compensate for the absence of parental love and affection that are so important to any child’s sense of security and happiness. Brainerd became a well-known American missionary and a powerful preacher, but he felt an unusual burden of guilt, as though he could have been in some way responsible for his parents’ deaths. As a result, he worked very hard to try to earn God’s love and approval. Biographies note that the Holy Spirit tried to convince Brainerd his sufficiency was in Christ, but that truth was never firmly established in his heart. He would gain some insight into this truth, but then fall back into a performance mentality. People who have written about Brainerd agree that he exhausted himself trying to please God because he always thought he had to earn God’s love. He tried to please God so much that he wore out his body and became too ill to carry out his ministry or even to pray. The young man with so much ability and potential to do great things for God died of tuberculosis at the age of 29. Brainerd’s story holds a sobering lesson for all of us. We can love God and serve Him with all our might, but we must also receive His love for us. We must believe that He loves us and accepts us completely—and that we cannot do anything to earn His love or merit His grace. As our verse for today reminds us, our position in God is all because of what He does for us, not what we can do for Him. Love Yourself Today: Nothing you can do will ever cause God to love or accept you more than He already does, so follow His example: love and accept yourself.
Posted on: Thu, 31 Oct 2013 12:51:52 +0000
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