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"Instead, just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak, not to please people, but rather God, who examines our hearts."
(1 Thessalonians 2:4, CSB)
Before Kyndall and I got engaged in November of 2018, I had a very important meeting with her father, Meigs, at a sandwich shop he and I had visited a few times. Now, you may not know Meigs, so let me tell you about him. Meigs is a family man, a hardworking man, a well-dressed man, and a man I hold a lot of respect for. Now this meeting at the sandwich shop was not just a normal meeting; this was the meeting of all meetings for me. This was the lunch meeting where I was going to ask for his approval and his blessing to marry his daughter!
I was TERRIFIED on this day! Meigs had never done anything to make me terrified of him. He didn't impose his fatherly figure on me, he didn't make things difficult for me, there was nothing like that; however, I was still terrified. We went to the sandwich shop, and we actually first talked about the weather that day (great conversation starter, I know). Then I immediately went into my prepared speech (and by speech, I mean I read the paper that I brought with me because I was so nervous). At the end of the paper, I asked if he would give me his blessing to marry his daughter... and he said YES, he gave me his approval to marry his daughter!
This week, I would like us to examine the topic of approval: not the approval of a father for his daughter to marry his future son-in-law, but the approval of our Heavenly Father to mankind.
- Does our approval from God come from a simple question to God?
- Does it come from our efforts?
- Does it come from anything we can do?
- Can we earn it in any way?
The answer to those questions is simply, no. Our approval as sinful human beings from a holy and perfect God comes from Jesus Christ! If we have placed our faith and trust in Jesus Christ and His triumph over sin and death, we are approved! It is not by personal effort or an impressive resume that God approves us; only by a relationship with Jesus Christ can we have God's approval!
See, without the approval of God over our lives, when we die, we would spend an eternity apart from God, and it would be absolutely just and right for our eternal residence to be apart from God. Sin has separated us from God and broken the perfect relationship with God that humanity had in the beginning. Sin has to be dealt with for mankind to be approved, and oh, how Jesus dealt with it!
If you are approved, here’s what I would love for you to do today: reflect.
- Reflect on the time that you began your relationship with Jesus.
- Reflect on Jesus and the work that He did to make you approved.
- Reflect on your right standing, your approved standing before a holy God because of His love for you.
- Reflect on the approval of God.
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