At His Feet

8/19/2020: Acceptance.

8/19/2020: 1 John 5:12
Whoever has the Son has life, but whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.

Matthew 11:27-30
"My Father has given me everything. No one knows the Son - only the Father knows the Son. And no one knows the Father - only the Son knows the Father. And the only people who will know about the Father are those the Son chooses to tell.

"Come to me all of you who are tired from the heavy burden you have been forced to carry. I will give you rest. Accept my teaching. Learn from me. I am gentle and humble in spirit. And you will be able to get some rest. Yes, the teaching that I ask you to accept is easy. The Load I give you to carry is light."

I have this need to be perfect. Since I was little, I idolized people who looked like they had it all together: the heroes of anime I enjoyed watching and the characters in many books I read and wrote. I idolized the heroes. Such a funny thing, really, but that's how it was. I idolized them because they resembled perfection in a way. They were really cheerful and everyone came around to loving them. They were loyal and never abandoned friends...they were sweet and kind.

And I felt like I was the complete opposite.

My childhood (like many) consisted of never being enough for people. No matter how loyal or how hard I worked - I wasn't good enough or even second place. So I lashed out. I decided back then that if I wasn't good enough, then I wouldn't try.

But things changed when I got saved. When Christ found me and adopted me, I was still a complete mess but I tried wearing a mask. I was used to masks - I acted like I had it all together, never complained to people's faces when they hurt me. I tried being perfect because somehow, I thought that was what I had to be. I thought that I had to stuff every ugly thing about myself inside and paint myself in white. But God showed me that it doesn't work that way.

That burden to follow the law to the tee was killing me. Because I tried carrying the load on my own, I wasn't happy and I cried myself to sleep constantly, while forcing a smile in church. God had to break me because of it. He showed me that I'm not perfect and that's ok. I don't HAVE to cover up every imperfection because He already took them from me. His burden is light. What that means is we can't save ourselves. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't keep the law and in Jewish culture; that makes me disgusting. However, the Load Jesus gives is just accepting that He is the Son of God who paid our price on the cross and when I believe in Him and accept Him - my sins are gone and I am new. I'm made right with God by faith and trust in Christ.

How simple is that!

That's pretty amazing! To know that a perfect God wants a relationship with me and that He already covers me and makes me right with Himself. That's like the ultimate love story that anime tries to capture! God is so good! He loves you no matter what you've done and He wants a relationship with you. He wants to hold you and take off the heavy load that world put on.

The world says that if you don't act like this or that or look the part, you're nothing.
God says to come as you are. Come drunk, come broken, come curious, come high, come however you and get to know God. Accept Him and the load He gives is light.

We're all looking for acceptance but God already accepted us. All you gotta do is go in the Father's arms and accept Him (Christ) back.