Be Free Today!

Let’s deal with some things this morning..

Some of you have dealt with rejection from those closest to you, again and again. You seek validation and approval in the words and actions of others but each time come up empty. You are looking around you and you think, “If I were more like this, or more like that, I would be accepted and valued.”

A hard truth…the acceptance from those you want it from most may never come. They may not understand or even realize how they reject you, how they repeatedly devalue you, or how they withhold from you the things you need most from them.

Some good news..

It really doesn’t matter.

Your approval and acceptance is ultimately found in the validation of a Heavenly Father who loves you radically and extravagantly. He thinks you are AMAZING and AWESOME!

He listens to you speak and embraces every word. He listens to your very thoughts and rejoices over the uniqueness of you.

Even if others were to never give you a second thought, God has thought about you more times today than your finite mind can begin to comprehend. In fact, His thoughts toward you transcend the realm of time and space because they exist in the eternal mind of your Father.

How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How great is the sum of them! If I should count them, they would be more in number than the sand; When I awake, I am still with You. – Psalms 139:17-18

Be free today from the labor of trying to win something that has little value – the approval of those who cannot appreciate who you are and selfishly only want you to be the person they want you to be.

Be free to be the person that the Father created you to be. Rejoice in the truth that Jesus is enough. Period. You don’t need a title, a platform or applause, He is enough. Everything else is secondary.

When you feel like you just don’t fit in with those around you, stop thinking the problem is you. Be content in Jesus.

His approval and acceptance of you was established before you were even born. The One who knows every detail about you loves you the most.

Unflinchingly.

Unconditionally.

Fiercely.

I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Marvelous are Your works, And that my soul knows very well. My frame was not hidden from You, When I was made in secret, And skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in Your book they all were written, The days fashioned for me, When as yet there were none of them. – Psalms 139:14-16

Today, be content in knowing that you are found in Him. He did not make a mistake in you and you’ve not been misplaced.

Be free from the pain and effects of rejection…..because His approval shouts louder than any passive aggressive cold shoulder or any blatant back turned when you hoped for arms extended.

He’s got you!!!

And He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. – Colossians 1:17

— Jason Tanksley