acceptance

Surrender Day 8 Image Unfiltered

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Surrender Day 8 Image Unfiltered

Deborah Rutherford

February 1, 2023

Accepted,Confession,Constant,Strength

Read His Words Before Ours!

Mark 1:1-8
2 Samuel 6:12-23
John 15:18-21
John 7:18-26
Genesis 1:26-27 

Dazzling celebrities and influencers dance on television, magazine covers, and social media scrolls. They portray worldly perfection with perfect meal plans, body weights, and even “perfect Christians” with flawless pictures from perfect angles, smiles, and filters. 

The world’s lens focuses on external attributes to create desired impressions. Western cultures promote the self-made and superficially flawless person. Although these images may look pretty and offer popular things to attain, buy, or be, they are counterfeits of God’s beauty. 

When Jesus came into the world, He brought His light to shine in the darkness. (John 1:1-5) He didn’t need to “create a persona” because He is the image of the living invisible God. (Colossians 1:15-16) Real beauty. The perverse dark world, blinded by its sin, shrieks at the light and beauty of Jesus.

We are pressured to conform to a worldly concept of shiny perfection, with all of our messy parts hidden.

As Christ-followers, we embrace God as Creator (Genesis 1:26-27), believing we are made to be set apart as a chosen, holy priesthood. (1 Peter 2:9) But how often do we feel ourselves conforming to the world’s image? 

Does our image conflict with who we are as people of God, remade to reflect Him? 

I’ve struggled with the impossibility of living up to social media. In high school, I emulated the models in the magazines and fell into an eating disorder. As a writer, I have been tempted to write for likes and followers, rather than for the One who called me to compose.

Did Jesus worry about His platform? 

Was He concerned with what the people, Pharisees, and Romans would think of Him? 

To fit in, did He water down His message?

No. Jesus was counter-culture. He eschewed building a platform, instead building a kingdom. He turned the world upside down with a King who serves and a God who had no place to lay His head, and a Holy One who washes feet. 

By surrendering our image to God, we release the world’s conception of an image, instead becoming His image-bearers.

As we bear His image, we too become counter-cultural as we live Spirit-empowered, holy, obedient lives.

Similarly, consider other figures from Scripture. 

Did John the Baptist, a prophet who declared the coming Messiah, have a nice suit, quaffed hair, and manicured nails? No, he came in a camel-hair garment with a leather belt around his waist and ate locusts and wild honey. (Mark 1:1-8)

What of King David, one of the best-known kings of Israel, stripped down to his ephod, enthusiastically dancing as the Israelites brought the ark into Jerusalem. His wife, Mical, called him vulgar. But David danced before the Lord because it was, and is always, about the Lord. (2 Samuel 6:12-23)

Many despised Jesus, John the Baptist, and David. Many will despise us as Christians. 

“If the world hates you, understand that it hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own. However, because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of it, the world hates you.” (John 15:18-19)

God blesses us for obeying His call to surrender our images and bear His.

Despite their humble beginnings and personas far from worldly acclaim, God used both David and John in significant, radical ways.

King David ruled a mighty kingdom and was a forebearer to Jesus. John the Baptist came ahead of the Messiah. Much like the groom’s friend who stands by and rejoices at the groom’s voice, John knew Jesus must increase, while he must decrease. (John 3:27-30) We, too, must decrease so Christ can increase, for our joy is complete in Jesus.

Just as the Lord was a faithful Sustainer, Supplier, and Satisfier to David and John the Baptist, so He is to us. When we surrender to Him, we no longer act on our own, seeking our glory, instead we seek the glory of the true and righteous God, and this brings us rich delight! (John 7:18-26)

God calls us to be His messengers,
proclaiming the good news of God’s love and sacrifice
to bring about our redemption. (John 3:16-17)
For, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news[!]” (Romans 10:15)

God holds His faithful with what the Bible calls “hesed” love, which is defined as an eternal, reliable, faithful, covenant love. As we turn our platforms, images, and life over to God, He proceeds with His perfect plan for our lives.

It took years to love my body and who I was as a child of God. Thankfully, I discovered a vital Christian principle: God is beautiful, and we are made in His image. (Genesis 1:26-27) We no longer need to match up to what society calls “pretty” when we learn how precious we are to the Holy Father.

By surrendering my image to Christ, my life shifted from a rollercoaster of never matching up, full of anxiety and striving, to focusing on Jesus and embracing His peace and joy. 

As a writer, I write for Him first. I ask if my writing and social media align with God’s image. My hair, makeup, weight, or home need not be perfect because God is my perfect.
 
Sisters, will you join me in asking God to show us where we need to surrender our worldly images to Him? For with God’s light in our image, we shine brighter than any shiny, perfected world picture.

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Open Day 1 Unlikely Reach

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Read His Words Before Ours!

Luke 14:12-14
Matthew 25:34-40
Romans 12:13-20
Isaiah 58:6-12

Open, Day 1

As a child, I loved the story of Zacchaeus, and as an adult I am still intrigued by this short man who had an amazing experience with Jesus.

His encounter is recorded in the Gospel of Luke 19:1-10. We don’t know a lot about Zacchaeus, but he is an interesting character, the kind that is fun to cast in the Sunday School play or Jesus movie.

Zacchaeus was a tax collector. Actually, he was the Chief Tax Collector. He was wealthy and powerful, but hated among his own people, the Jews. Zacchaeus was a traitor of his own nationality, working for the Roman Empire who had overthrown and occupied the country. Zacchaeus not only collected taxes from his Jewish countrymen, but he also exploited and stole from them.

Zacchaeus was wealthy, not because he was a skilful businessman, but because he was a criminal. His people hated him. He didn’t have friends outside of his team of tax collecting crooks.

But there was something in Zacchaeus that drew him to find out more about Jesus. Being a short man, he climbed a tree along the way of Jesus’ travel plans so he could get a good look at Jesus. Perhaps there was something in Zacchaeus’ heart that was soft to the Spirit of God; something drawing him to seek a deeper meaning to life than wealth.

No one is beyond the reach of God’s grace. The Father is not willing that any should perish (Matthew 18:14). Even Zacchaeus, a man who was hard and powerful and rich, felt the need in his soul to explore a Saviour.

When Jesus passed by the tree that Zacchaeus was hiding in, He stopped, noticed him, and invited Himself over for a shared meal. Jesus showed acceptance and grace to Zacchaeus. He wasn’t deterred by Zacchaeus’ reputation, his criminal activity or the aghast reactions of the good people he was with. Jesus opened His schedule and His heart to Zacchaeus.

I don’t know what was spoken about over dinner. I don’t know if Jesus spoke directly to the elephant in the room and challenged Zacchaeus about his exploitation. I don’t know if there was a deep theological or apologetic debate. Nothing is recorded. But I imagine not. I imagine Zacchaeus’ heart was transformed by the love and acceptance he experienced in the company of Jesus.

Zacchaeus’ life was completely transformed by his encounter with Jesus. Zacchaeus made a public declaration, announcing his change and promising to bring restitution for the wrongs he’d committed. Zacchaeus lost his wealth that day, and gained a personal relationship with Jesus.

Jesus made his intentions very clear. “For the son of Man has come to seek and save the lost.” Luke 19:10

This challenges me!
I grew up a pastor’s kid in a loving Christian family, and have raised my kids in a similar way. The guests at our dinner table were most likely to be missionaries and deacons, not ‘sinners’. The people I am friends with, the ones I am comfortable to share my life and my home with, are people who have similar beliefs to me.

How can I be like Jesus and live an open life?
How can I demonstrate generous hospitality?

Just as Zacchaeus was drawn to discover more of Jesus, there are people in our communities who are living in dark circumstances, are hurting and lost. It may appear on the surface they are far from God, but He is at work in our broken world, drawing all men to himself!

Jesus noticed Zacchaeus.
Who can you notice today? A mum in the school pick up line looking sad or distressed? The server in the grocery store with red, swollen eyes?
Who is looking for a touch from Jesus that we can notice?

Jesus opened up His life to the sinners no one else wanted to spend time with.

Jesus opened his calendar for Zacchaeus.
Like me, are you too busy for sinners?
Do you have time in your day-to-day to spend with people who are far from God?
Often, I don’t.
I’m too busy at church! I’m running Bible studies and attending prayer meetings. The precious spare time I do have, I save for family and friends, not difficult people.

Jesus opened his heart to sinners.
The gospel stories tell over and over of Jesus’ compassion for the crowds, loving people who were lost and hurting.

Why did Zacchaeus change his life?
Was it because Jesus preached to him or because Jesus loved him?
Genuinely loved him.
All of him.

Jesus shared a meal with Zacchaeus. I love how He just invited himself over.
“I’m coming to your house today!” (Luke 19:5)
Who can you open your home to? A neighbour? Your children’s school friends and their families? This takes courage! But it is a powerful picture of acceptance, of love in action.

We can expect some opposition and raised eyebrows from the religious establishment when we begin to live open lives, when we open our hearts, calendar, and homes to those far from God. But it’s exciting to contemplate the way Jesus can completely transform someone’s life as we share Jesus’ love with open hearts and hands.

Who will you open your calendar, your heart, and your home to?
Who will you invite to experience the love of Jesus in your home as you offer generous hospitality?

I’m going to go and knock on my neighbour’s door.
I think Saturday evening just opened up.

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The GT Weekend – Freedom Week 2

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The GT Weekend

At Gracefully Truthful, weekends aren’t for “checking out”.
Use this time to invite the Almighty’s fullness into you life in a deeper way!
Saturdays and Sundays are a chance to reflect, rest, and re-center our lives onto Christ. Don’t miss the opportunity to connect with other women in prayer, rest your soul in reflective journaling, and spend time worshiping the Creator who longs for intimacy with each of us!

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Journal Prompts

1) It’s easy to affirm the idea that only Jesus can offer us salvation. However, when we try to add ‘earning our daily salvation’ to the Gospel, we’ve missed what Jesus can do in us. Think through what lies the devil tells you. Comparison? Worth? Value? Name those lies and take them back through Jesus’ victory in you!

2) What is most difficult for you in thinking of the free gift of salvation? What makes it easy to pick back up in thinking you need to do something to earn it?

3) “Laws” or rules make following something much more cut and dry. It’s a quantifier to measure your success consistently. The reality of the Gospel stomps on those rules and allows us to sit before our Savior and follow the Holy Spirit’s leadings. Reflect on the emotions that truth stirs in you.

Worship In Song

Music Video: “Death Was Arrested” by North Point

Pour Out Your Heart

Lord Jesus, thank You for the freedom You offer every single day. Complacency makes it comfortable for me to think of salvation as just a one-time experience. Drawing deeper in Scripture and closer to Your heart, I can see the refinement experience that comes along with a daily need for saving, most often saving from myself. Forgive me for putting my self-righteousness as a higher priority than Your Truth.

This week, Father, show me places where the devil has whispered lies in my ear. Let me claim those back in the power of Jesus’ name. Fill those lies with truth from Your Word to keep my heart focused on You. It’s when I turn that focus back to myself that I stumble. Give me eyes only for You!

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In everything, with praise and thanksgiving,
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Inheritance Day
6 He Is Mine

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Read His Words Before Ours!

Hosea 2:14-23
Romans 4
Numbers 18:20
Ezekiel 34:25-31

I wasn’t an amazing athlete growing up. I was never chosen first, but rather became the “pitied” team member. Looking back, much of my lacking coordination in team sports was rooted in my own insecurity. I didn’t know who I was, had no confidence in my abilities, or who I was created to be. I loved reading because it was much easier to live in someone else’s world than it was to exist in my own. I could only dream of what it must be like to be bold, courageous, and confident.

I played volleyball, but was clearly the weakest link, despite how hard I tried.
I played soccer, and really secretly enjoyed it, but could never remember the rules, or where I was supposed to be.

My insides had such rough callouses, I had built up so many walls around my heart, that surviving my teenage years, was exactly that, survival. I had become so accustomed to blocking things out, that I simply had no capacity for recreational sports. Honestly, I painfully didn’t have the capacity to enjoy very much about life. I didn’t dare allow myself that luxury. Enjoyment meant letting down my guard, and I’d long ago learned that was foolish. On rare, rare occasions, surrounded by 1 or 2 friends that I’d learned to trust, I’d allow my own pleasure. By the time I was in junior high, I’d accepted that I would always be the bottom rung. Always the outsider, never normal, never on the winning team, or worthy of high regard. I expected to be hurt, I expected to be ignored and passed over. I expected to be treated poorly because that’s what I felt I deserved. When I did happen to receive an honor for my academics (which were a natural overflow because I worked so hard at succeeding at something), I wrote it off as a fluke or someone awarding me out of pity.

My reality afforded me a heavily skewed perception of God as well. Sure, He loved everyone, but He had to love me because He was God. I was the leftover, the reject. I would never bring true delight to God, or make Him “proud” of me. I’d never been able to please my earthly father, how much greater of a disappointment must I be to the Lord?

Though this reality is now, blessedly, in my long distant past, my insides quiver as I type. Those shadows.
That heavy sadness.
It was a deathlike grip, suffocating me slowly, giving me only enough air to eek out a survival.

Not surprisingly, my self-perception that assigned no value to myself, had significant impact on our marriage relationship. As my husband deeply desired to pursue pastoral ministry, I just couldn’t. How could I give my life away in service to a God who was forced, by His own nature, to love me? How could I encourage others to trust a God who I felt had abandoned me?

But God was much bigger than my past, than my reality, and oh how He loved me!
God used my husband to tenderly hold my hand, teaching me to trust in true love that was completely independent of my performance, wasn’t based on emotion, and didn’t leave me feeling used, abused, and disregarded. My seminary-student husband, who dreamt of pastoring and shepherding hearts for God’s kingdom, withdrew from seminary indefinitely, in order to pour into me as his wife.

He intentionally took time to purposefully show me God’s heart of love as he patiently laid a foundation of truth.

“Why, even the hairs of your head are all numbered!” Luke 12:7
To which, my husband pointed out that, not only did the all-knowing, all-loving God know how many hairs I had, but He knew where each single one that had fallen out now laid.
He knows me inside and out, all the things that are important to me, and all the things that will never even register as un-important to me, like how many hairs I have.

I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak tenderly to her. Hosea 2:14
He pursues me.

Thus declares the Lord of hosts: Return to me, says the Lord of hosts, and I will return to you, says the Lord of hosts. Zechariah 1:3
His heart longs for me.

So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed! John 8:36
He longs for freedom for me.

You are precious in my eyes, and honored. Isaiah 43:4
He sees me as precious.

Strength and dignity are her clothing. Proverbs 31:25
He endows me with dignity and strength.

I love you. Isaiah 43:4
He. Loves. Me.

This shall be their inheritance: I am their inheritance. Ezekiel 44:28
He is my very great reward; my rich inheritance.

I am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine. Song of Solomon 6:3
He is mine.

He chose us in him before the foundation of the world. Ephesians 1:4
He chooses me.

Unlike my growing up experiences, the Father had much for me and saw much in me.
Today, He is my reward, my prize, and my inheritance.
Just as He chased my heart,
He’s chasing after yours!

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Thanks for joining us today as we journeyed into Inheritance Week Two!
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The GT Weekend – Repurposed Week Two

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The GT Weekend

At Gracefully Truthful, weekends aren’t for “checking out”.
Use this time to invite the Almighty’s fullness into you life in a deeper way!
Saturdays and Sundays are a chance to reflect, rest, and re-center our lives onto Christ. Don’t miss the opportunity to connect with other women in prayer, rest your soul in reflective journaling, and spend time worshiping the Creator who longs for intimacy with each of us!

Journal With Us!

Journal Prompts

1) Comparison can be our worst enemy. You are enough. The Father has made you in His likeness. You are needed for the body of Christ. Rest in this truth today.

2) Have you experienced real community? What’s your favorite part? Most difficult part? If you haven’t joined in community yet, what is holding you back? Step out in faith and be ready to experience His love on a whole new level!

3) We all struggle with being transparent. Speaking our greatest weaknesses can be terrifying. Think for a moment on your biggest weakness. Name it. Embrace it. It gives you a place for the Father to come in and stretch you. Pray about who to share it with; we’d love to hear about it and be praying for you at prayer@gracefullytruthful.com

Worship In Song

Music Video: More Than You Can Imagine by Jason Ellsworth Band

Pour Out Your Heart

Lord, I praise Your holy name. You are perfect in all Your ways. Forgive me Lord for questioning You in Your design. I worry about being good enough in one area and then hide it from You and those around me. I choose to show my best side and to make myself look stronger. That steals all the glory from You. Accept my body as a living sacrifice, I ask it be pleasing to You!

Let me rest in knowing You have a perfect plan and use for my life. Keep revealing what that is and how I can use my giftings to further Your kingdom and make Your name great!

Pray With Us!

In everything, with praise and thanksgiving,
make your requests known to God!
Click here to comment and pray with the GT Community!
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Send your prayer request to prayer@gracefullytruthful.com
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Prodigal Day 6
Below The Birthright

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Read His Words Before Ours!

Luke 15:17-24
Galatians 2:15-21
Romans 8:12-17attachment-1-30

As I begin typing, my mind keeps wandering to everything on my “to-do list” so I can avoid this transparency. But, with a deep breath, and a convicted spirit, I tell you this:

I have lived a life full of legalism.
I have lived a life where the world is black and white.
I either pleased God or angered Him.

Sitting with my counselor several years ago, I explained that I could almost see the Lord frowning at me throughout different points in my life, as He found Himself, once again, disappointed by my mistakes. Because of this mental imagine, I lived a life trying to make a frowning God smile with approval for me. I would belt my little heart out singing on a Sunday morning and listen intently to the pastor speak. Some weeks I felt especially holy and would even take notes during the sermon.

There are exact moments in my memory where I recall stopping and thinking, “Ah! I’m really making God happy now!” One day, I explained the power of grace in the most clear and convicting message to another friend, and I knew, I just knew, that I had earned another jewel for my heavenly crown. Another time a woman asked me how much she owed me for babysitting her little loves and with a heart full of pride I smiled and said, “You don’t owe me a thing. I just want to minister to you today.” I really did want to minister to families like hers. I really did want my friends to understand grace. But sometimes I got too caught up trying to please the Lord instead of living out the things He had placed in my heart.

This only led to a complete crash when I found myself living a life of secrecy in my late teens. I attempted to outweigh the Lord’s certain displeasure, by serving and praying even more.
I was doing something so many of us find ourselves doing: I was living below my birthright – the birthright that I gained when I asked Jesus to be the Lord of my life. The birthright that promised that because of Jesus, I had an unshakeable inheritance in Heaven. Before I could make the Lord even more upset with me, I decided I should just end it all. I hit the lowest place of my life.

Looking back now, I can see that my life has been a lot like our “Prodigal Son”. Sure, I’ve made some big mistakes, wandered away from my Father, and found my way home again, but I’ve also been caught in the trap of legalism. The Prodigal and I both lived below our birthright.

One day, when that wayward son finally became more desperate than he could bear, he thought to himself, “My father’s servants have more food than I do. They don’t wonder where their next meal will come from, and they at least have beds to sleep on. I will go to my father and tell him that I am no longer worthy to be called his son and ask him to treat me as one of his hired servants.”

No. Longer. Worthy.

That was exactly how I felt. I felt I wasn’t worthy of the Lord’s grace. I wasn’t worthy of His forgiveness. I wasn’t worthy of His compassion. And I certainly wasn’t worthy to represent His Kingdom anymore.

The shame-wrecked boy, though having never lost his place as redeemed son, felt he had completely lost his worth. He was so caught up in his sin, his emotional despair, and lies about who he wasn’t, that he didn’t feel like his father would even want him to be his son anymore!

As a mama myself, it’s utterly unfathomable to imagine one of my daughters begging to be my housecleaner because they don’t deserve to be my daughter anymore. In youth ministry, I’ve seen kids make mistakes. I’ve seen parents weep in agony over their children. I’ve never seen a parent disown a child, but even so, we live in a fallen world and I know parents make awful mistakes. I know some of you have been disowned. But Jesus tells us this story so we can know that He will never abandon, never turn us away, and never disinherit us.
It’s against His nature as the perfect Father.

The Prodigal Son found himself
so caught up in legalism,
so overtaken by disappointing his father,
that he lost sight of the truth.
He was his father’s son. And nothing could strip that title, that birthright, away from him.

I am my Father’s daughter.
You, friend, are your Father’s daughter.
Nothing, absolutely nothing can take that away from you.

Our Father will do anything for us (He already has), and He will always, beyond a shadow of a doubt, love us deeper than we can comprehend.

There is freedom
when we embrace the truth of our birthright, which is 100% gained when we decide to follow Jesus.
Peace, grace, and joy await us when we aren’t living a life caught up in appeasing a God who already paid the debt we owe.

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Embracing God’s fullness in our lives is rooted in scripture and memorizing His word is vital to our continued growth and depth with Jesus. Tap and hold from your mobile device to download this week’s verse and make it your phone’s lockscreen!

Thanks for joining us today as we journeyed into Prodigal Week Two! Don’t miss out on the discussion below – we’d love to hear your thoughts!

Looking for other journeys from this theme? Here’s a link to all past studies in Prodigal!