I Just Want to Be Accepted

Romans 15:5-7
5May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you a spirit of unity among yourselves as you follow Christ Jesus, 6so that with one heart and mouth you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. 7Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God.

Everyone wants to be accepted, everyone needs to be loved. We are hardwired to want to belong to something greater than ourselves. The problem is that all to often getting it means compromising what you believe and instead of bringing God glory we in fact grieve Him. I see this often in working with students because popularity, fitting in and going with the flow are conditions for being accepted and "loved". The pressure is immense and often leads students to do things that may never have dreamed of doing all in the name of being accepted. But sometimes we lie, make up stories and make ourselves look better than we are in order to be liked, because if they found out who I really was then they would not like me. We end up believing a lie that says we have to be a certain way, do certain things in order to be accepted. When the truth is we are accepted by our creator and God has not nor ever will make a mistake. God did not mess up when He created me. He loves us no matter what, but His call on our lives is to love others and to accept others just as He has and does. That's tough because it's easier for me not to do that, but this is where I must rely fully on Him to give me the strength to follow after Him.

Father thank you that you have accepted me and love me and that I am part of something much bigger than myself, your body. Help me to love other and accept others in order to bring you glory.