Do you feel accepted? Part 1
Part One
Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God
Romans 15:7
I recently shared with you all about a 3 hour online class at biblicaltraining.org that discussed improving relationships through communicating 12 commonly identified needs. It’s “that good,” that I’m mentioning it a second time to you all. It’s worth the three hours.
When you look at the list of 12 needs from that training, one of those 12 needs is acceptance. We all need it, right? We may say we don’t care, but we all have an innate desire to be accepted. The message I have for you from this verse is two-fold, so we’ll do part one today and part two next week.
When we seek acceptance from other fallible human beings, we are setting ourselves up for hurt and disappointment. While it’s natural to do that (from parents, siblings, friends, coworkers, etc.), and it’s nice when we have acceptance from those around us… the level of human acceptance we receive is irrelevant to our identity. “just as Christ accepted you” – God, Himself accepted you. He knows all of those things about you that you wouldn’t share openly, yet He accepted you. That’s a powerful thought! That MUST mean that no matter what you’ve done or how other people respond to you, you must be a valuable, loved individual who is acceptable. Even when your behavior may or may not have been at one time or another, YOU are.
When you are feeling lonely and unaccepted, take that to God in prayer.
“Heavenly Father, I’m tempted to feel discouraged and lonely because other people don’t seem to accept me. I believe that you have accepted me. Help me find my acceptance, security, and comfort in You, I pray! In Jesus’ name, Amen.”
Do you need some help figuring out how to cling to God’s truth and put on your spiritual armor as you march through life? Check out our digger deeper group: https://diggingdeeper.everydayincredible.net
