December 26

Written by Bill Grandi on December 26th, 2019

My title for this devotion is Acceptance: God’s vs man’s.

Christmas 2019 is history.  Well, at least the day itself. I’m sure there will be some still doing the Christmas thing over the next few days with family and friends. But, for me, it is time to turn my eyes toward 2020.  Over the next week or so I will (personally) be looking back over 2019 and looking ahead to 2020. Even as I say that, I have no intention of bemoaning my mistakes and failures of 2019 (which were many) nor do I have any intention of worrying about 2020. Why?  Because I can’t change either!! Past or future. No DeLorean here (rats!)

There is one lesson I’ve learned this past year and one I’m planning on implementing more in 2020. I’ll ask it in the form of a question: whose approval did I seek and will I seek? I was speaking  with someone just the other day and that was our topic: approval of men. As a pastor I craved the approval of others. Decisions were made/not made/reneged on/changed sometimes based on the approval of others. Young and impressionable, I depended way too much on men’s approval. Approval to me = Acceptance. God Himself only knows the lives that were affected by my waffling and indecision.

I guess in some ways my thinking now is I’m too old for this, too old to care what people think. But that’s not true. What is true is that God’s approval of me is far more important than what any one person thinks. His acceptance and approval of me is all that matters.

Now…if I can just keep remembering that…

“Father, thank You for accepting me into Your arms as one of Your children. Help me to remember that is really all I need. I don’t have to live for the approval of others. Only Yours.”

 

10 Comments so far ↓

  1. That, Bill, I believe, is one of Life’s greatest lessons. In my life, it took a lot of dillengence on my part to get to that point. Somethings in life do come with maturity. Thank God that He is so long-suffering with us! Merry Day-after!

  2. Ed says:

    You and me both. Hope that changes for us in 2020 and beyond.

  3. Sounds like the perfect New Year’s resolution, Bill. May we all crave God’s approval, not the approval of our fellow human beings.
    Blessings!

  4. Ryan S. says:

    I do find myself falling into that hole on occasion myself. Decisions based on approval of others. I don’t want to go too far the other extreme either where I don’t care about what others may think… I just don’t want to base my decisions and my actions on their approval. I think Diane stated it well, some of that comes with maturity.

    • Bill Grandi says:

      I agree Ryan. We can’t leave out others in our thinking or actions. Good point. But you are also right about not basing our decisions on it.

  5. floyd says:

    It’s astounding how we always seem to bend in that same weak spot inside us. And it’s a life long fight against it.

    Keep fighting the good fight, brother!