The Approval Game

“A curse will be placed on those who trust other people. It will happen to those who depend on people for strength. Those are the ones who have stopped trusting the Lord. They are like a bush in a desert. It grows in a land where no one lives. It is in hot and dry land with bad soil. They don’t know about the good things that God can give.’ But the person who trusts in the LORD will be blessed.”

Jeremiah 17:5-7 ICB

From a very early age, we are taught to look and seek the approval of others. When we begin school, or even perhaps earlier, we are programmed to act a certain way, make the grades, look a certain way, or reap the consequences of societal mandates. It’s everywhere you look. If the schoolhouse wasn’t enough, media and fashion magazines state we must be a specific size, wear the right jeans, and the list goes on and on. And it doesn’t stop there. Even our government is removing our freedoms of speech to telling us we must believe a certain way. Do you ever feel like a pawn or that you just can’t measure up?

Why Do You Desire Approval?

Theologian Henri Nowen nailed it when he said, “I am what other people say about me.” All too often this is the case in 98% of Christians today. This is why I love the priestly breastplate. The first gemstone in the breastplate points to God’s approval of us. (see the blog on Carnelian, or for detailed information on why it represents God’s approval, read Dressing for the Battle, Armed to Win). The first gemstone is carnelian, and it is an orange-red gemstone. It’s actually the color of blood. God explains all through the scriptures the importance of blood and the sacrifice and He calls this a covenant. In its simplest definition, a covenant is a contract or promise. It’s considered a legal authority and the covenant of blood that the Bible speaks about is God’s seal of approval upon His chosen people. This same covenant or seal of approval is extended to all people, if they choose, by believing in God’s only Son, Jesus, who fulfilled this promise through His death on the cross.

For this is how much God loved the world, He gave His one and only, unique Son
as a gift. So now everyone who believes in Him will never perish
but experience everlasting life.
John 3:16 TPT

The covenant or promise of God’s seal of approval is made complete through the sacrifice of blood. This is important because the scriptures tell us that our sins cannot be forgiven without the shedding of blood. (Hebrews 9:22). It’s the very foundation of Christianity. Although carnelian is the first stone in the breastplate, it’s the middle stone in the foundation of the wall around the New Jerusalem that Revela­tion 21 talks about. New Jerusalem is heaven come down to earth at the end of time. The carnelian gemstone is described as the middle stone in the foundation to that city. Just as the heart is in the center of the body so is the carnelian in the center of the wall. This points to the heart of God, and His covenant or promise to save. He is showing us in the breastplate, what is first and foremost. It’s a promise that we have God’s seal of approval.

From the inception of the breastplate, God showed us and continues to show us that we do not have to act a certain way, dress a certain way or try to please anyone. We don’t have to be anything to anyone, other than who He created us to be. For us to be someone else would be to lower ourselves to be less than God desires. He desires us to be whole, and complete. No man or woman or behavior or belief system can make us whole. Only Christ can do that. God’s approval is made complete through the sacrifice of Christ and the work He did on the cross and we can say,

“I Am Approved!”

Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ.
He anointed us, set His seal of ownership on us,
and put His Spirit in our hearts as a deposit,
guaranteeing what is to come.
2 Corinthians 1:21-22 NIV