“You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you.” John 15:16

“I wonder if he’ll notice,” I thought, wondering if my husband would comment on the clean floors as I was yet again sweeping up massive amounts of dog hair while our pets shed their winter coats all over our house. Almost as quickly as the words formed in my mind, they were answered by a thought. “Why do you need so much approval when you already have mine?” God was speaking and I needed to listen.

For too many years, I was caught in a cycle of approval and rejection. Rejection had peppered so many of my close relationships that I began to doubt my own worth and value. Which then cycled into a need to seek approval. I think you get the picture.

Reading through a list of truths about our Heavenly Father, my eyes settled on one in particular. “He loves you completely and unconditionally and will never let you go. So submit to God. (Beth Moore’s James-Mercy Triumphs).”

I needed to let those words cover me and remind me that I don’t need the approval or acceptance of anyone to prove my worth. No one can fill the place in my heart that God can and does.

As I was reading through the list in the study, the hard question followed. Which point struck a chord with you the most and why? I don’t really have to answer that, do I? Yes, actually, I do. The pain of the past and rejection I’ve allowed myself to feel is something that needs to be dealt with and literally, given to God. Just as we learned in James 4:7, “Submit to God.” If we will truly and honestly do that, He will fill us with His grace.

Meditating on this, I remembered John 15:16. “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit…” HE chose ME! Before I ever knew Him, He chose me to be His. I don’t know where you are in your walk, but for me, those words were like bright sunshine washing over me on a warm summer day.

The work I have been given to do on earth is to bear fruit for Him. Rejection and approval don’t factor into that equation because I already have the ultimate approval.