Assurance that Jesus accepts you

John 6:37 (NCV)

“The Father gives Me My people.  Every one of them will come to Me, and I will always accept them” 

What a wonderful verse of assurance is one of several Biblical assurances that all Christians need to know, believe and live out in our lives.  Other examples of biblical assurances:

·  Assurance of salvation and eternal life – I John 5:11-12

·  Assurance of forgiveness—I John 1:9

·  Assurance of answered prayer – John 16:24

·  Assurance of guidance – Proverbs 3:5-6

·  Assurance of help in temptation – I Corinthians 10:13

·  Assurance of all things working together for good— Romans 8:28

To think that Jesus knows and accepts you for who you are is a very wonderful and comforting thought.  It is even more wonderful and comforting to remember what He said in John 10:27-28—“My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; and I give eternal life to them, and they shall never perish, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.”  Talk about acceptance no matter what!!

Henri Nouwen said this about feeling accepted or not accept by God-- "As long as we are not fully convinced that we have been reconciled with God, that we are forgiven, we continue to create divisions among people because we expect from them a healing power they do not possess. Only when we fully trust that we belong to God and can find in our relationship with God all that we need, can we be truly free and be ministers of reconciliation. This is not easy; we readily fall back into self-doubt and self-rejection. We need to be constantly reminded that we are indeed reconciled."

We all want to feel loved and accepted for who we are. We all crave unconditional love. We all want to know that we are okay just the way we are.  Being and feeling accepted is one of the greatest needs of all humans.  George Orwell said that “happiness can exist only in acceptance”.  We also need to accept others.  Here’s another great quote:   “The greatest gift that you can give to others is the gift of unconditional love and acceptance.” (Brian Tracy).

What do you need to do to feel accepted by God, if you don’t already?  What do you need to do to accept yourself for who you are and no longer strive to be someone you are not?  What do you need to do to accept others in your life that you know that right now you don’t accept them?  Keep in mind that accepting others is not the same as approving others for what they do or not do, just as God accepts you, but may not approve of all that you are doing or not doing. 

Accept one another, then, just has Christ accepted you. -- Romans 15:7