Acceptance from others

Don’t we all yearn for acceptance from others.. When someone appreciates what we did, when we are respected amongst the family members, in the office when recognised by our managers and peers, doesn’t it make us feel good. And motivates us to strive better so that we maintain or gain more acceptance..

Its within us humans.. from childhood itself we look for acceptance within our own group. we try to look better, try to be the smart and cool one in the group, to be the intelligent one in the group. From childhood itself we feel the peer pressure. 

But haven’t we noticed that the acceptance of others keep fluctuating.. today someone says good about you, you feel that you are much valued and loved by your family.. but then there are other days where some harsh words just spoil the day.. some day someone just love the dish which you prepared, other days things don’t turn out well and it just spoils the mood.. the root cause being that others didn’t like the dish which you made.. looking for acceptance from others tend to have a strong grip on our lives.. strong enough to dictate the direction which we take in our lives..

Definitely listening to others opinions is valuable.. especially from a loved one, some who is a well wisher of ours.. yes definitely listen and if its the right thing to do incorporate in our lives.. But trying to please everyone, trying to be well accepted by others and then it dictating the course of our life is not the right path to pursue..

Only God’s love is unconditional.

The Lord hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee. – Jeremiah 31:3

¹⁶ For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

¹⁷ For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.

¹⁸ He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

¹⁹ And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.

⁷ Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God.

⁸ He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.

⁹ In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him.

¹⁰ Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

Human love changes with emotions, mood swings…. But God’s love never changes. He loves us unconditionally.. And He showed us His love by sending His Son Jesus to save us from our sins.. Be sure of this one thing – If you are a child of God, no matter whatever happens God loves you..

¹⁴ But Zion said, The Lord hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me.

¹⁵ Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee.

¹⁶ Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands; thy walls are continually before me.

Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with loving kindness have I drawn thee. – Jeremiah 31:3

Jesus said

²¹ He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.

²² Judas saith unto him, not Iscariot, Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the world?

²³ Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.

²⁴ He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings: and the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father’s which sent me. – John 14

Now a certain man was sick, named Lazarus, of Bethany, the town of Mary and her sister Martha.

³ Therefore his sisters sent unto him, saying, Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest is sick.

⁴ When Jesus heard that, he said, This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby.

⁵ Now Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus.

⁶ When he had heard therefore that he was sick, he abode two days still in the same place where he was.

¹⁷ Then when Jesus came, he found that he had lain in the grave four days already.

³² Then when Mary was come where Jesus was, and saw him, she fell down at his feet, saying unto him, Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died.

³³ When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews also weeping which came with her, he groaned in the spirit, and was troubled.

³⁴ And said, Where have ye laid him? They said unto him, Lord, come and see.

³⁵ Jesus wept.

³⁶ Then said the Jews, Behold how he loved him!

³⁷ And some of them said, Could not this man, which opened the eyes of the blind, have caused that even this man should not have died?

³⁸ Jesus therefore again groaning in himself cometh to the grave. It was a cave, and a stone lay upon it.

³⁹ Jesus said, Take ye away the stone. Martha, the sister of him that was dead, saith unto him, Lord, by this time he stinketh: for he hath been dead four days.

⁴⁰ Jesus saith unto her, Said I not unto thee, that, if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God?

⁴¹ Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead was laid. And Jesus lifted up his eyes, and said, Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me.

⁴² And I knew that thou hearest me always: but because of the people which stand by I said it, that they may believe that thou hast sent me.

⁴³ And when he thus had spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth.

⁴⁴ And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with graveclothes: and his face was bound about with a napkin. Jesus saith unto them, Loose him, and let him go.

⁴⁵ Then many of the Jews which came to Mary, and had seen the things which Jesus did, believed on him.

The best most intimate love letter which I have come across

Psalm 139 

 O lord, thou hast searched me, and known me.

² Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, thou understandest my thought afar off.

³ Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways.

⁴ For there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O Lord, thou knowest it altogether.

⁵ Thou hast beset me behind and before, and laid thine hand upon me.

⁶ Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain unto it.

⁷ Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence?

⁸ If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there.

⁹ If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea;

¹⁰ Even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me.

¹¹ If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me; even the night shall be light about me.

¹² Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee; but the night shineth as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike to thee.

¹³ For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast covered me in my mother’s womb.

¹⁴ I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well.

¹⁵ My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.

¹⁶ Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them.

¹⁷ How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God! how great is the sum of them!

¹⁸ If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand: when I awake, I am still with thee.

The Lord requires  – Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind;

Does God have the first place in my heart? 

Does God occupy my feelings and emotions?

Do I seek after the Lord with all my strength? Do I use my time to know Him better?

Does the Lord have the most important place in my thoughts and my decisions?

This is what the Lord requires. Anything short of this is left overs. 

The Lord Jesus gave His all for us, so is it too much to desire the best from us?

Have you gone through physical suffering? To some extend all of us has gone through in varying degrees.

God knowingly sent Jesus to the world. Both God the Father and Jesus knew that one day Jesus would be crucified by wicked cruel men. It was a choice. Jesus didn’t had to come. But Jesus and God the Father loved us and Jesus came into this world. He came as a human being born like us and underwent all this physical suffering. Did it pain for Jesus? Yes it did. Did it hurt God the Father seeing all that His Son had to go though. Yes it did. Because of the great love for me, all the physical suffering was endured.

Jesus knew all the time that He would be crucified. Just imagine that if we come to know that we would die in pain suffering a lot, would we have any peace of mind? The thought itself would torture us all the days of our lives. Jesus knew this that He would die and would die a painful shameful death. The mental suffering was at the peak as He poured out in prayer before being betrayed by Judas. 

And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground. 

Jesus suffered such mental agony. When a child suffers on death bed, the parent’s mental agony is something which cannot be described. The child goes through the pain, emotional suffering. By seeing the suffering child, the parents go through immense mental and emotional struggle. That’s how God the Father felt when He saw His Son Jesus in agony. – And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground. 

All this mental agony was endured because of the great love with which He loved us.

Throughout eternity, God the Father and Jesus the Son was one. Now to save the world from sin, justice has to be served. Jesus took our sins on Him and paid the penalty. The one who knew no sin, became sin for us. God is of pure eyes to behold evil. God is perfectly Holy and pure. There is no sin in God. Because of sin, Adam and Eve who were in fellowship with God was separated from God’s presence. Sin separates a person from God.

When the sin of the whole world was put on Jesus, God the perfect Judge turned forsook His Son whom He loved. Imagine a Judge having to sentence his son to death due to a crime committed. Justice demands the son to be sentenced.The Father gives the verdict. But imagine the mental suffering both the parent and the son has to go through. 

Here Jesus and God the Father who were perfectly one, had to endure the spiritual suffering of separation as the sin of the whole world was laid on Jesus. Jesus always used to address God as Father. When the sin was laid on Jesus, the spiritual separation caused Him to address as God and in all the Physical, Mental and Spiritual agony He cried out – My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?

All this was for because of the great love of God the Father and Jesus for a mere sinner like me.

Now I know, now I realise God your great deep love towards me.

God, what do I need to do to be free from my sins?

God is love. At the same time He is perfectly just as well.  Since we are created in God’s own image, we have these characteristics in some quantity in us. When we see some injustice, it disturbs us. But God is the perfection of Justice. He is love, at the same time He is just.

If the love of God overlooks sin, it would be incompatible with the just nature of God. The sin has to be punished, without which man can never again come near to God and have fellowship with Him. 

God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten son to the world that WHOSOEVER believes in HIM should not perish, but have everlasting life.

Would we sacrifice anything for someone who doesn’t care for us? I really doubt. We might for someone whom we love. But for someone who doesn’t care for you, will you sacrifice anything?

I realised that’s what God did. He really did love that much,that He gave Jesus to the world which didn’t bother about God .He showed His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

I thought family love is the strongest. But even in family when quarrels happen, don’t we realise that our love is not that pure? our love is not that strong and deep as we thought. if we analyse truthfully, we can sense how selfish our love is. Husbands and wives love each other. But think is that love really selfless?If family/friend’s love was selfless, there wouldn’t be arguments, there wouldn’t be self pity, there wouldn’t be harsh speech.

Human love is selfish, because all humans love themselves more than others. The nearest which can be said of selfless human love would be that of a mother’s to a new born baby. The mother loves the child without any expectations from the baby. We humans love others and expect others to love us.

Here is how God showed His love to us, that while we didn’t love God, He still loved us. He not only loved us, but acted on that love and gave His Son whom He loved the most to the world who never cared for Him. Will any human do that? I doubt. But that’s what God did and now I know that His perfect love to mankind is so strong that He gave His Son Jesus for the world. why did God do this? To restore our fellowship with Him. God loves me this much?? I never knew.. I never realised… But now I know.

But God why would you care for me? I really never bothered about you? I think of you when I wanted something in my life. Why would you care for me then? Why would you love me when I never really bothered about you?

I personally realised God is love and its His characteristic to love. How much ever bad a child is, still His mother would love him. If human love cares for a bad son, how much more pure and high would God’s love be? So God more than being my creator, you also love me? I never thought so. I have only seen love in family or friendship. I don’t love people who don’t bother about me. God, that you love me even when i didn’t bothered about you is too wonderful a love for me to understand. I have to admit that, but as the years pass by I have realised increasingly that God you really are love and your love towards mere human beings is really beyond all description. Its such a high love beyond description.

But God, then how can I know for sure that you really love me, a human?