READ: JOHN 3:16-17; ROMANS 15:1-7; 1 PETER 2:22-24

Our need for love and appreciation is written deeply into our nature. We want to be seen and accepted by those around us. But, in this broken world, humans are selfish, and human attention is fickle. Popularity can tease those who don’t find it...and wreck those who do.

Jesus knows about popularity. He understands people. Humans were created through Him—and He came and lived among us, fully God yet also fully human. He knows firsthand that people can crown you one day and crucify you the next. So, during His ministry on earth, how did Jesus deal with that oh-so-human desire for attention and acceptance? How did He deal with popularity?

John 2:23-25 says, “Many people saw the signs he was performing and believed in his name. But Jesus would not entrust himself to them, for he knew all people. He did not need any testimony about mankind, for he knew what was in each person.” Instead, Jesus often spent time alone with the Father, and He “entrusted himself to him who judges justly,” even in suffering (Luke 5:16; 1 Peter 2:23).

Yet Jesus was not detached. He cared. He loved. He had a mission to accomplish for our sake. He made the ultimate sacrifice, giving up His life on the cross, because He so loved us (John 3:16-17). And when He rose again, Jesus declared that all who belong to Him are fully and completely accepted. So now, we are free to love others instead of comparing ourselves to them.

Consider taking a moment to talk to God, perhaps using this prayer as a guide: Lord, thank You that, because of Jesus, I can entrust my heart to You, loving others with abandon as I follow Your leading. Remind me I am secure in Your great love, and may that love overflow from me to each one You bring into my life today. • Trent D. Schrock

• God created us to be in community (Genesis 2:18). But sin has broken our relationships with God and others (Genesis 3). How has Jesus made the way for our broken relationships to be reconciled? As we wait for full reconciliation at Jesus’s return, how can we see glimpses of it today? How does Jesus’s love for us make it possible for us to love others? (If you want to dig deeper, read Romans 5; 2 Corinthians 5; Colossians 1; 1 John 4:19.)

• What might it look like for you to set aside time in your day to be alone with God in His Word and in prayer so you can be refreshed, reminded of His love for you, and strengthened to overflow it to others?

Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God. Romans 15:7 (NIV)