📖 Word For The Day: The Basis For Self-Acceptance

It is not just teenagers who struggle with the idea of self-acceptance. We all may wish at times that we could change something about ourselves. The basis for self-acceptance is that you were “fearfully and wonderfully made” by God! Self-acceptance is trusting God for who you are, your flaws, and your physical or mental disabilities.

Psalm 139:13-18
13  For you formed my inward parts;
you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.
14  I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Wonderful are your works;
my soul knows it very well.
15  My frame was not hidden from you,
when I was being made in secret,
intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
16  Your eyes saw my unformed substance;
in your book were written, every one of them,
the days that were formed for me,
when as yet there was none of them.
17  How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!
How vast is the sum of them!
18  If I would count them, they are more than the sand.
I awake, and I am still with you.

God takes full responsibility for even our physical disabilities. Remember what God said to Moses in Exodus 4:11? “Who gave man his mouth? Who makes him deaf or mute? Who gives him sight or makes him blind? is it not I, the LORD?” Jesus also affirmed this truth when he responded to the disciples questioning why a man was born blind. “This happened so that God’s work might be displayed in his life” (see John 9:3).

This truth may be hard for us to accept, especially if a loved one or we suffer from such a disability. Is that fair? Why should a man be born blind and suffer for years so that he would be available to display the glory and power of God on a particular day? Is God’s glory worth a man being born blind?

If you know God, then you are probably agreeing that the glory of God is worthy of a man being born blind. But what about you? What about your physical disabilities, weaknesses, or inadequacies? Is God’s glory worthy of those as well?

Are you willing to take your physical limitations, learning disabilities, and even your appearance problems to God and say, “Father, You are worthy of this infirmity in my life. I believe You created me just the way I am because You love me, and You want to glorify Yourself through me. I will trust You for who I am”? (Bridges)

Here is the path to self-acceptance: Learn to trust God for who you are.

1 Corinthians 4:7
For who makes you different from anyone else? What do you have that you did not receive?

“All of us received whatever ability, learning, riches, station in life, rank, or influence we have from God to be used by us for His glory. Whether it is an ability or disability, let us learn to receive it from God, to give him thanks, and to seek to use it for His glory.” (Trusting God, p.164)

Pastor Phil

(Our ongoing summary of Jerry Bridges excellent book, Trusting God, p163-164)