Living From Approval

"The Christian is assured of God's love and approval. God is pleased with us in Christ. So the Christian longs to obey God, not for himself,so that God will save him, but out of gratitude to God who he knows has already saved him....God's approval liberates us to live in a way God approves of. The gospel is both a powerful assurance and a powerful motivation to live in radical obedience. We do not live God's way in order to become His children, but out of gratitude that we are already God's children."

                   - Timothy Keller, Galatians For You, page 34-35
   

Approval Addiction

Quotes on "Approval Addiction " from Empty Promises by Pete Wilson:

"...approval addiction is the process of looking to people or relationships to provide the love, acceptance, and validation that should come from God.

And that , of course, is idolatry." - Page 51

"Approval addicts are destined for a life of mediocrity because they always have to follow the herd - and that's the very opposite of what Christ calls us to do....

....If you depend on other people approving or supporting everything you say or do, you will end up doing and saying nothing. You will be handcuffed to mediocrity." - pages 56-57

Approval addiction is essentially an act of self-abandonment. Instead of finding your value and worth from your Creator, you have given your heart up for adoption. You have given it away to others for love and approval, making them responsible for your feelings...Depending on anyone other than God for fundamental validation is just asking for heartbreak." - page 58

"Your worth and value aren't determined by anyone's love and acceptance except for God's. And God's love and acceptance is already guaranteed. If you look to him for love and approval, you sill never be rejected." - page 61

Have I mentioned that I like this book?

Everything You Need, You Already Have

From an interview by Timothy Dalrymple with Tullian Tchvidjian regarding approval and acceptance.

When you realize that you already possess everything you need in Christ, you recognize that you don’t actually need anything from anybody.  Everything you need, you already have in Christ — you don’t need anything more, so now you can now spend your life giving yourself away.  That invests your life as a leader with unbounded courage.

Now, I can walk into a meeting to announce an important decision and not be worried that some in the room might not like it, and fight against it.  I can live my life with unfettered sacrifice because I don’t need to win.  I’m free to lose, and that’s something leaders face all the time.  So much of their own sense of value and worth and identity is wrapped up in success as the world defines it.

But when you realize that because Jesus won for me, I’m free to lose, because Jesus succeeded for me I’m free to fail, that makes you a powerful leader.  You can live your life with reckless abandon, realizing on the one hand that, like Paul said, to live is Christ and to die is gain.  Everything I need I already have.  There is nothing anyone can strip away from me that I actually need.  I’m free to be unpopular, free to make tough decisions, free to stand on principle and do what’s right even if people will resist it.

It changed me as a leader.  I have more courage.  I’m able to lead more boldly.  I’m able to lose and not have to walk out of a meeting getting my way.  I can be sacrificial.  I can give myself away, because all I need is Christ.  I don’t need anything else.  I’m now free to give everything I have without needing anything in return.  I can love those who hate me, I can turn the other cheek when I’m slapped in the face, because my dignity and my sense of value is not wrapped up in what I have in this person or this project.  It’s wrapped up in Jesus.

That changes everything.

 BTW, I highly recommend Tullian's book Jesus + Nothing = Everything.

Emboldend by Grace

"Because Jesus has already earned God's full approval and affection and acceptance for us, we no longer require any of that from anyone else. The gospel alone empowers and emboldens us to press on and strain forward with no anxiety over gaining other people's sanction or good opinion - even God's! All the care and love and value we most crave - full and final approval - we already have in Jesus.

The same is true for the meaning and purpose and validation and direction and freedom and security that all of us long for. His sacrifice for us has earned all this for us directly from God.  With these idols no longer burdening our lives, we're suddenly freed and empowered to live a life of outrageous generosity, unrestrained sacrifice, uncommon boldness, and unbounded nerve."

   -Tullian Tchvidjian, Jesus + Nothing = Everything, page 91