A Quarterly Blog by Emily Dean
What It Means To Receive
“But to all who did receive Him, He gave them the right to be children of God…” John 1:12 CBS
Growing up I was taught that it’s better to give than to receive. While in so many ways that’s true and biblical teaching (Acts 20:35), Jesus also taught that receiving is necessary for the Christian life. In this passage we see that the way to “earn” the right to become a child of God is to receive Him. But wait…that seems counterintuitive. We earn familial status by doing nothing? Yet, if you look a little closer, there is one thing you must do to gain a right relationship with God. Receive Jesus. At some point we all must make a choice of whether we will receive Jesus as Savior, but allowing Him to reign as Lord over our lives is a daily process as Paul reminds us when he says to “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling” (Philippians 2:12). So, what does this tell us
about what it means to receive?
1) Receiving is a choice – John noted in chapter one that some did receive Him. However, that also means that some chose not to receive Jesus. Many refused to recognize Him as Messiah and therefore did not receive Him as Savior. God does not force us to receive Him. He gives us each a choice. Yet the rewards are immeasurable. To those who do choose to believe, He gives the right to be children of God!
2) Receiving requires humility – Pride says, “No, thank you. I don’t need your help,” while humility says, “Thank you. I appreciate your help.” Pride often gets in the way of our willingness to receive. As Christians part of giving to others is being willing to receive. We are not God who gives abundantly with no need of receiving anything. Sometimes we do need help. If nothing else, we most certainly need God’s help. To
receive God’s help, we must humble ourselves before Him and ask. Then we must be willing to receive it when He provides it, even if it comes in a different way than we expected.
3) Receiving requires acceptance – To understand how receiving requires acceptance, we can take a lesson from Job. When his wife told him to give up and curse God, Job responded by saying, “Should we accept only good from God and not adversity?” (Job 2:10). When we are following Him, we can trust that whatever God allows into our lives will ultimately be for our good (Roman 8:28). We may not like it at the time or even understand it, but when we choose to accept our circumstances, we can receive God’s grace and peace. By receiving Him, we can rest in the good hands of our loving Father.
Emily W Dean 