Accepted by Grace

Barry Bennett |

All of us have experienced rejection.  Rejection is a powerful weapon against our self-worth.  Rejection can breed thoughts of inadequacy, hopelessness, anger, bitterness, fear and depression.  Whether the rejection has been on the playground in school, from a romantic interest, from a potential employer or from parents, rejection can cause great damage in how we see ourselves and our value to others.

Rejection is the soil in which unbelief grows.  Each time we experience a rejection the potential for doubt and unbelief increases.  How can you have faith in life, others or yourself when you believe you are unlovely, incapable or inadequate in some way?  The seeds of rejection produce the harvest of failure.  Our identity becomes tied to the rejections we have experienced and we set our expectations in life according to the memory of the rejections we carry in our hearts.  This is nothing more than bondage and oppression.

This same attitude we often carry into our relationship with God.  If others don’t like us, why would God?  As a result it is difficult if not impossible to enjoy a loving, trusting relationship with the Father.  He sees all of our faults and is more aware of all of our weaknesses than anyone else!  Why should we expect anything good from Him?

Listen to this:  

“to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.” (Ephesians 1:6)

Are there words that can describe what Paul just said?  In Ephesians 1, Paul declares that God has blessed us (v. 3), He has chosen us to be without blame before Him in love (v. 4), He has predetermined that we are sons and daughters in His family (not slaves or orphans)(v.5), and by grace He has made us accepted! (v.6)  This is the nearly too good to be true Good News!

The Greek meaning of the word “accepted” is:  to make graceful, charming, lovely, agreeable, to surround with favor and to honor with blessings.  Wow!

Before you were ever conceived, God knew you and chose to love you and accept you.  You may have been picked last on the playground, but you are first in the heart of God.  You may not have Hollywood looks, but you couldn’t look any better to God.  You are unique.  There is no one like you.  You have divine potential and a divine purpose in this world.  You are accepted!  

If you can get your heart wrapped around this, faith will spring forth.  When we know that there is no chance of rejection we can believe the promises, enjoy the fellowship, see our potential and have peace.  

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Barry Bennett

Barry Bennett

Barry, a graduate of Christ for the Nations Institute in Dallas, Texas, has been serving the Lord since 1972. He and his wife, Betty Kay, have served on the mission field in Mexico, Guatemala, and in Chile, where they spent almost 12 years before returning to Texas in 2001.

While attending a large Spanish-speaking congregation in Carrollton, Texas, Barry was the director and principal teacher at a Spanish language Bible institute, Instituto Avance, where he served for five years. The Bennetts also spent two and a half years ministering to Cambodian refugees in Dallas, and they have ministered in home groups, churches, and on short-term mission teams.

Barry came to Andrew Wommack Ministries in 2007 and worked in the Phone Center as a prayer minister before accepting a position answering the scriptural and doctrinal questions that would come to AWMI via mail and email. He later went on to be the Dean of Students, and is now the Dean of Instructors. Barry is also an instructor at Charis Bible College in Colorado and teaches at both domestic and international CBC satellite campuses.