I visited a friend in the hospital this past week. As you might expect, it’s not the easiest thing to visit someone in the hospital these days. I had to get my temperature taken and make sure I was on the visitor list. But when I passed the tests, I got a special sticker to wear around. It said, “APPROVED.” I feel silly to say it, but it felt really good to walk around with that “APPROVED” sticker. I belonged. I was welcome. I was free to walk around inside that hospital. I had been tested and passed. “APPROVED!”
Is that how you feel today? APPROVED. I often don’t. That’s why it was nice to get that sticker! How often don’t we feel left out? Ashamed? Unworthy? We see all of our sins… We see all of our failings… We see all of our faults… We must not belong. We must not be welcome.
Except, God tells us something different in Jesus. At the end of the book of Romans, the apostle Paul writes this simple phrase about a fellow Christian: “Greet Apelles, tested and approved in Christ” (Romans 16:10). That Christian man could walk through life knowing that he was tested and APPROVED in Jesus. Isn’t that amazing? Jesus had forgiven his sins. Jesus had made him a child of God. Jesus looked on him with love and grace every single day. Did you know that’s true for you? Tested and approved in Christ. What a blessing! Where you have a sticker that says it or not, you are APPROVED in Christ!
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