Acceptance with Joy
I have been thinking about accepting change joyfully and praying that the Lord would give me more grace in that area. How many of us, when we had planned to have a day in town, but have to stay to watch our little siblings, say, “Sure, Mama, whatever works out is fine with me”? Or, when it doesn’t work out to have a special day with a friend like you’d planned, you don’t even question why it couldn’t be made to work?
In the book, Hinds Feet on High Places, when Much-Afraid was going through the desert, there was a tiny flower, the only green living thing, besides straggly cacti, in a lonely corner behind the wall, called Acceptance With Joy. This tiny flower was perfectly happy to be where it was, even though it was living in an almost unlivable desert. It was accepting it’s place with joyfulness. We need to be accepting our place with joyfulness—whether you are doing what you’d planned or something that came up that you hadn’t planned on. I still have struggles accepting change—like the other night I had planned on having a friend over, and after prayer meeting she told me she wouldn’t be able to stay. It was a trial to me and I had a hard time accepting the change with joy. I thought, Well if she wouldn’t be able to stay, why did they have to wait till the night she was to spend to tell me that she couldn’t? But the Lord was faithful to me and helped me understand that those kind of feelings were not of Him and I needed to accept this change joyfully.
My mother has often repeated this saying that someone had told her, “There is nothing so permanent as change,” and that is true. There is nothing so permanent as change. Life is always changing. We can stumble through life always disappointed, because just as we were set, it changed. But if we have the grace of God in our hearts, we will accept change with joy. It will be a joy to have change, because it gives us a chance for the grace of God to shine out of us. That doesn’t mean that the change isn’t disappointing, but when we have given our desires to the Lord, He gives us a blessing that is worth so much more than getting to do what we wanted. I know a sister that used to have trouble accepting change. But she got more of the grace of God in her heart and now it is a real blessing and encouragement to see how she accepts changes joyfully.
Dear sisters, press toward the mark, get more of the grace of God in you to accept change. It is such a blessing to receive change joyfully—to you and also your family. The Lord blesses us when we don’t contend or wish that our circumstances were different. Often times the Lord will test us just to see how much we do trust Him that everything will work out. It is sweet (once we aren’t struggling to find out why) to be content to accept whatever changes comes along. It is so peaceful to know whatever comes along, is His will, and it is my job to only trust and accept with joy.