The fourth and last cup of the Seder is The Cup of Acceptance, from Ex. 6:7 – “I will take you as my own people, and I will be your God.” What a wonderful way to complete the Seder, being reminded that with His blood over the doorposts of our hearts, we are accepted in Yeshua, no matter what. There is nothing we can do or not do that will cause Him to love us any more or any less. That is such a foreign concept to all of us living on this earth, because from the time we are born we receive messages that we are loved or accepted more based on how we perform – how well we obey, how well we please, conform or agree with others; our work, our grades, our appearance, our accomplishments, etc.
Heb. 13:5 tells us that God will never leave us nor forsake us. Most of us are familiar with that verse, we probably even have it memorized, but how many of us have it deep down in our hearts, not just in our heads? I thought I did, until recently when the Lord showed me that although I knew what the verse said, what I believed in my heart was that He would never leave me nor forsake me… that is, until I messed up! Every time I sinned, messed up, made a mistake, or even when someone was upset with me or unhappy for any reason, I would feel shut down and distant from God. I was believing lies that He was mad at me, disappointed in me, that I was bad, that I didn’t deserve to be loved or accepted, that I didn’t have a right to be in His presence, that I deserved punishment or needed to punish myself, and that I needed to hide from Him or let him cool off for awhile — all similar to how I would react around my dad when I wasn’t “perfect.”
When I used my weapons of warfare to break free of these lies, what God showed me was a picture that I’ve made into a skit in my classes. A picture that when I sin, mess up, or make a mistake — God – true to His Word – never leaves me. He is on my right side, I have someone representing God holding my right hand, and He never lets go of my hand! BUT what I have done, is I’ve given Satan a handle in my life through the sin. I then have someone representing Satan on my left side, connected to me by a rope. The sin has opened the door for the enemy’s authority, influence and power to creep into my life, and the only way to cut that rope, is to use my weapons of warfare. I confess and repent of the sin, and cancel the authority I’ve given him by believing the lies (remember he is a liar and the father of lies, John 8:44). Using our weapons of warfare is what cuts the rope, it cuts the handle that we’ve given Satan and restores our intimate relationship with the Lord. What’s amazing to me and what I’m still in the process of really “getting” in my heart, is the fact that how God saw me, His acceptance of me, His love for me, never changed one bit throughout the entire process. It’s NOT at ALL dependent upon what I do or don’t do, it’s TOTALLY dependent upon what Yeshua did through His death and resurrection. If we could just get that into our hearts how free we would be! Now I’m not talking hyper-grace here, or saying there are no consequences to our sin and mistakes. Not at all! How did death enter the picture in the first place in Genesis? Through sin! And it still does. When we give Satan a handle through sin, he brings death in many forms to our bodies, minds, emotions, relationships, etc. It’s important that we are aware of the authority and handle that we give Satan when we sin, so that we can put all of our energies into using our weapons of warfare and cutting that rope, instead of running and hiding from God and trying to punish ourselves!! What I am saying is that God’s acceptance of us as believers never changes no matter what we do. He will NEVER leave us nor forsake us, even when we sin and mess up.
For example, recently a friend was upset with me and felt that I had offended her. Now I didn’t mean at all to offend her, and so for days I kept beating myself up for it and going over and over the situation in my head. “I should have done this, I shouldn’t have said that, Why did I do that…Why didn’t I….?” Anyone ever been in that place? I used my weapons of warfare: I confessed my sin and asked for forgiveness. I forgave my friend for her bitterness and rejection. I cancelled Satan’s authority and influence in our relationship and commanded those spirits of rejection, bitterness, and division to go in Yeshua’s name. Our relationship was restored, and God broke through and said to me, “What if you did? What if you did offend her? What if you did do something wrong? Do you think you’re God that you can never make a mistake? You’re not perfect, only I am!! Nothing has changed in how I see you. I still love you just the same, even if you are not perfect.” Unbelievable!! You see in my family, I felt I had to be perfect to be accepted. I didn’t really feel loved even when I WAS perfect, so I couldn’t imagine ever being loved and accepted or even in my dad’s presence if I wasn’t perfect. To still be accepted in God’s family when I’m NOT perfect, feels so foreign to me, but oh so amazing and oh so healing!
One last picture that seals this truth of acceptance into my heart comes from Isaiah 61:10 – “I delight greatly in the Lord. My soul rejoices in my God, for He has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of righteousness.” Through this scripture God gave me the picture of wearing a purple royal robe of righteousness. I am a member of THE royal family. I am a daughter of the King, and I can wear this purple royal robe no matter what I do or don’t do. It never comes off and no one can take it off of me! I am a daughter, and I have all the rights, privileges, and authority of my royal family! I am a co-heir with Yeshua!! I’m seated in Him, in Yeshua, at the right hand of God! Now that’s royalty!! That’s my position forever, in my new family! It can never change, no matter what my position was in my earthly family, and no matter how tentative my acceptance was in that family! When I picture myself wearing my purple robe, then I see myself as God sees me – holy, blameless, pure, cleansed, worthy to stand in His presence, and worthy to boldly and confidently enter into the Holy of Holies (amazing when you think of all the High Priests had to do to enter in….but I’ll save that for another blog:))
Allow the completion of the Seder, the 4th cup, the Cup of Acceptance, remind you of how God sees you in Yeshua: completely and totally accepted no matter what, a royal daughter or son of the King clothed in a purple robe of righteousness, seated at His right hand, cleansed and pure, holy and blameless in His sight. Now that’s quite a picture!!! Let it penetrate into your heart this Passover season.
To the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved (Eph. 1:6)
He has reconciled you by Yeshua’s physical body through death to present you holy in His sight, without blemish and free from accusation. (Col. 1:22)
He chose us in Him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight. (Eph 1:4)
So you are no longer a slave, but a son (daughter); and since you are a son (daughter), God has also made you an heir (Gal. 4:7)
Now if we are children, then we are heirs – heirs of God and co-heirs with Messiah (Rom. 8:17).
So that being justified by His grace we would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life (Titus 3:7)
And God raised us up with Messiah and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Messiah Yeshua, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Messiah Yeshua. (Eph 2:6-7)
I delight greatly in the Lord; my soul rejoices in my God. For He has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of righteousness. (Is. 61:10)
Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need. (Heb. 4:16)
Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Yeshua…let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. (Heb. 10:19, 22)
