Accepted

We should not live our natural lives based on feelings because feelings fluctuate based on circumstances and will take us on a roller-coaster ride of highs and lows to where we will be controlled by the highs and lows we experience in living our daily lives. 

Neither should we live our spiritual lives based on whether or not we feel accepted or don't feel accepted by God because feelings are not a good gauge to base God's acceptance of us on. In Hosea 4:6 God's people were perishing because of a lack of knowledge, God's people today are questioning their acceptance by God because of lack of knowledge therefore, are jumping through religious hoops to be accepted by religion believing also that this pleases God and He will accept them. The knowledge we must imprint on our heart and mind is the fact that we ARE accepted by God whether we feel like we are or not.  

Paul had no reservations about his acceptance by the Lord, Philippians 3:8-10 says:

"More than that I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish in order that I may gain Christ, and may be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith that I may know him, and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings, being conformed to his death."

As believers we need to quit striving to be accepted by God because we are already accepted by Him and nothing we can do or not do will make us more or less acceptable to Him. If we would but rest in the assurance of our relationship with Him we would know Him more fully, than depending on what we are told about Him by denominated people. When we realize we are completely accepted by God and loved by Him because we are in Christ, and concentrate our energies on knowing God rather than learning about God, we WILL know His WILL.

Believers spend much time and energy seeking the "will of God" as if it were some instruction to find. When we rest in the knowing that are accepted by God, graced by God, forgiven by God and loved by God, His will becomes natural for us in the living of our everyday lives...not by some specific or special task He wants us to perform.

While we must know we are totally accepted in Christ. We must also know the call of God is clear from Genesis to Revelation. That call is holiness unto the Lord. The Apostle Peter writes in 1 Peter 1:14-16:  As obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts, as in your ignorance; but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written, "Be holy, for I am holy." 

If we are indeed saved by grace and not by works and Ephesians 2:8 says, "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourself: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast."...then, why must we strive to live holy lives by keeping a bunch of religious rules and adhering to religious constitutions and bylaws? The religionists say, well if God saved me the least I can do is try to live holy; or one might say we are to be holy because we love God and He commands that we are to live holy. All of these reasons are scriptural and call us to holy living; but religious foolishness has caused many to feel unaccepted and people feel they must live holy because it is a command, or to prove to God we love him, and when we slip in our  holiness and fall into sinning, we feel unaccepted because we have been taught to base our acceptance on our feeling of holiness.

The Holy Spirit was sent to reveal Jesus and the Father to us. Jesus said in John 15:26 that the Holy Spirit would testify of Him. If we are to learn more about God, learn more of His nature, His love. Then God can be revealed in us and therefore through us as the Community of the Redeemed and to those around us in the Community of Humanity.

Rest assured you are accepted in Christ. Know this fact in your spirit, then you will accept rather than reject others. We can accept others only to the degree that we realize we realize we are accepted. Once we live knowing we are accepted by God, we will accept others, even with their quirks, their ways, and the things about then that is not a witness to godliness. 

If you are a believer you are "accepted in the Beloved!" Don't forget that.