There is power in accepting things you cannot change. The sooner we learn to do this is the sooner we will be able to live the amazing life God created us to live. We will often become bombarded will unseemingly horrendous circumstances. But in all of this, we must accept them for what they are, so we can defeat them because of who we are. Let us both accept our situations, and also that we are fully capable though the power of God to overcome them.
Perhaps the most humbling experience is when we meet up on a situation we do not like, but we cannot change. In these uncomfortable moments we will realize how little we are in the bigger picture of life. The truth is we’ll encounter situations in our lives that we do not understand and we cannot control. As we face these situations we will realize both the pain of non-acceptance and the power of accepting things we cannot control. It also gives us the opportunity to trust God, who is in control of all things.
Most of our anxiety is caused from the turmoil inside of us due to not accepting things we cannot change. It is hard to accept a thing we did not expect to happen to us. We often feel that some things should never happen to us because of who we are. Yet it is because of who we are why things happen to us. As imperfect human beings we will sometimes get it wrong, yet we must get it right. We have the undiluted power to overcome and to redirect the course of our life.
What you resist, persists.
There is a saying that goes, ‘What you resist, persists. – Carl Jung.’ What this means is that whatever you face that you do not accept, you will keep on facing. The moment you stop resisting, and start accepting, is the moment you’ll experience the great power of acceptance.
God grant me the serenity To accept the things I cannot change; Courage to change the things I can; And wisdom to know the difference.
Accepting God’s Will For Your Life
Abraham (Genesis 22 1-19), on the other hand, was obedient concerning the will of God for his life. One particular event that proves this is when Abraham offered his son Isaac as a sacrifice to God. As God asked Abraham to sacrifice his only son, Abraham accepted God’s request. For Abraham, this had to have been the hardest decision to make. Yet it was harder for him to disobey God. In the end, as Abraham was about to sacrifice Isaac, God stopped him. When God saw Abraham’s faith, God blessed Abraham with an even greater blessing.
Do Not Resist The Will Of God
The longest and most difficult battle I’ve faced is when I refused to accept God’s will for my life. I always knew that God made me to be ministering in some capacity. After going to theology school for three years, I still didn’t fully accept this calling. Many nights I have fought with myself trying to dodge God’s purpose for my life. I always felt that I didn’t have what it took to be what God called me to be.
For many years I struggled with immense pain and suffering trying to resist God’s purpose. Yet when I stopped to resist God’s will, my struggles went away. It was not the calling that caused pain in my life, but it was my lack of accepting the calling that caused me to suffer. Accepting the things you cannot change can be challenging, but it is always the best choice.
Navigating the Sea of Forgetfulness: Embracing Healing and Renewal
My lack of acceptance caused a lot of battles for me. After many years of resisting God’s will, finally I discovered that it was my resistance that caused the inner uneasiness to continue. There have been many long nights when I had to rap in my blanket, and I command myself to accept life as it happens. Sometimes the pain of staying the same becomes so great that we have to seek change. The important thing to note is that the change that we seek is through the door of acceptance.
For many of us, we find ourselves in a similar position. We spend so much time trying to resist the life that is happening to us, that we are not fully able to allow this same life to happen. Often our own selfishness causes us to keep suffering. Our pride and arrogance can also shadow our eyes from reality, yet faith shows us the way of God. My case to you is to identify with the power of acceptance, and begin by faith to accept the will and leading of God.
Acceptance doesn’t always take away our troubles, but it will always help us get through them.
When accepting things you cannot change, you must understand that our troubles won’t automatically go away. This is because acceptance doesn’t always get rid of your circumstances, but it will help us live through them. By this I mean that when we accept what is happening to us, it won’t automatically take away our troubles. However, this is the first step to getting through these circumstances.
You might be up against many enemies. Yet you must accept these enemies in their entirety, then by faith defeat them. Accepting your enemies doesn’t mean you heed to them. It means that you see them as the enemies that they really are. When you see your enemies for what they are, then you can be properly empowered to defeat them.
You might be experiencing the whilst of the wind of life, be encouraged! The truth is that what you go through is what has been assigned to you, and what is assigned to you is for you to go through. As you walk through the pricks of your own wilderness, look to the prize that’s ahead of you. Be like Paul who had an unbearable thorn in his flesh, yet he anticipated and waited on the perfection of the power of God.
I’ve Had My Moments of Acceptance Too
In my own life, there have been many situations that have been so foreign to me, that they have been so hard to accept. There was a time when I was going through the experience of a broken home. A broken home is a really sad and hurtful place to exist. If you have ever been in a broken home, you will know about the intimate wounds and indelible scars that can be experienced.
I remember in this time that I felt some pain I didn’t know could be experienced, yet all this pain was a result of my lack of acceptance of the situation. I just couldn’t accept that this was happening to me. My thought was that a was better than these things happening to me. Soon I realized that I am only human and humans face diverse difficulties.
One night, as I curled on my pillow and the pain burned, I finally accepted that this was the situation and I had to deal with it. At this moment, there wasn’t a sudden quenching of the pain, but slowly, as I accepted the reality, I was able to cope with it. This took some effort to keep reminding myself of the truth of the situation, but my acceptance made me acceptable before God.
I must say that it is in this brokenness that I experienced some of the richest spiritual blessings of life. As I learned about the power of acceptance, I was able to shed a lot of the negative emotions I travelled with. I was also able to let go of the selfish way of thinking that some things couldn’t happen to me, and accept the leading of God, that wherever He leads me, is safe for me to go.
Accepting things you cannot change can disarm your fears
One thing I have learned throughout the years, and it’s that when I accept something I no longer fear it. Consider the person that fears death. The moment this person accepts that death is inevitable and there is no way around it, this person will no longer fear death. It is not comfortable accepting things you cannot change, but it is the wise thing to do. Accepting death doesn’t take away its sting, it just helps you to prepare for it.
It is very similar with almost all situations in life. When we accept the thing we fear, then we lose that fear. Sometimes it’s very hard to accept the things we fear. Consider the one that fears losing a loved one. It can be very hard to accept this. As a young man I lost my father to a critical illness. This wasn’t something I was looking for at that time. I remember I use to watch my father on his bed suffering and I couldn’t even watch him without tears, needless to say, accepting his death.
One morning at about 2:30 AM my Uncle called me with the news of my father’s passing. I remember as I heard the news that I suddenly fainted. To this day, I remember the aching in my stomach as I tried to make sense of my father’s passing. At this point in my life, this was the thing I feared the most, and up to this point, it was the most tragic event I experienced.
Even though I did not accept my father’s death before he passed, eventually I had to accept that my daddy was gone. It was at this point that I began to heal and to let go of my fears.
7 Scriptures About Acceptance from the Bible
2). Romans 14:1-2
3). John 6:35-37
4). 2 Corinthians 6:2
5). John 1:11
He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him
6) .1 Timothy 1:15
7) . Romans 15:7 NIV
