Daily Encounter: A Week-day Devotional by a staff of ACTS International.

Tuesday, October 12, 2021

"And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near."¹

There is deep within the heart and soul of every one of us a need and longing to belong. The one who has no sense of belonging is more likely than not to become physically ill, depressed, or even suicidal. Healthy relationships are necessary for our overall well-being.

Not belonging, not feeling loved and accepted and/or being rejected can be one of life's most painful experiences. Ralph Keyes in his book Is There Life after High School? writes that Mia Farrow has never forgotten the time every girl but her was asked to dance. Nor did Charles Schulz of the "Peanuts" cartoon ever forget that the yearbook staff rejected his every cartoon. Movie actress Ali McGraw confesses she doesn't forget the fact that she never had one date in all of high school. Henry Kissinger is best remembered by his classmates as the kid nobody wanted to eat lunch with at school."²And perhaps many of us can remember when kids were choosing teams and we were the last one to be chosen. It was pretty devastating.

If Jesus, when on earth, needed close friendly relationships, how much more do we need them? He invested time with his friends (disciples) and developed a reciprocal relationship of trust. Good friends are hard to find, and healthy relationships take work and effort from both parties involved, but God will lead us to the right people when we ask him to.

Suggested prayer: "Dear God, thank You that you have created me for relationships. Please help me first to be a good friend and then find those healthy friendships where I can belong. Thank You for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus' name, amen."

1. Hebrews 10:25 (NLT).
2. Donald B. Strobe, Collected Words. Cited on http://www.sermons.com/.

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