Dealing With Rejection

 

Over the years, rejection has come up not only in my own life, but for many of my friends and family. I have had people come asking for prayer over varying degrees of rejection and pain.  The wounds of rejection go deep and are often long lasting and can result in behaviors that are sometimes harmful.

Rejection from fathers is rampant in our country. I am seeing a generation of broken-hearted children in the bodies of adults. Women are drawn to unhealthy relationships with men just to have a relationship. They haven’t seen the love from a father so they don’t know what a healthy love from the man they seek should look like.

Likewise, the men have not had a father that was present, or committed or willing to hold them gently with loving strength. Men want to do better, but they weren’t handed down a toolbox to keep things running smoothly in a family relationship. Rare is the man that overcomes on his own. Devotion and determination with love are the traits of the LORD that propel them to succeed.

Mothers have rejected by their own needs being empty and so they search more for themselves or have to fill more roles in the absence of a father than give for their children. Again, the children inadvertently feel rejected.  This can be in reverse too, when the father has the children. The parent rejections are the deepest rejections and carry the most adverse responses from the grown children later in life.  From these comes the spiritual handicap for people to understand the love from their Father God and the comfort and counsel through His Spirit. Deaths of parents can cause a child to misunderstand, feeling a sense of rejection, too.

Rejected from a spouse leaves the wounded with the disability of understanding the love of Jesus. The Bible says men are to love their wives as Christ loves the church and gave Himself up for them. When rejected by that man, how can women understand and believe how much Christ loves them and is committed to them even through their wobbly and imperfect faith and that He loves them as they are for always?

Smaller rejections come in simple things like not making the team. Not being picked for a part. Not getting the job or the promotion, not getting into that school or class. Not getting that girl to date you or that boy. There is rejection of our words or what we have said that is true and people reject it. Advising children toward a healthy behavior or those kinds of advice for friends or family and it is rejected. Input you may have given to help a business do better or a church or community and it is rejected.

And then our response…why even bother?

But guess who knows every kind of rejection you have felt? The LORD. He has undergone and continues to be rejected. He loves like a perfect Father. He counsels and gives us His wisdom to live a good life and it is rejected. He offered Himself and His life and was rejected of His perfect sacrifice. He came with fulfilled promises and was rejected. He offers peace, hope, love, forgiveness and He is rejected. He loves as a jealous lover and is rejected for something cheap. The fullness of His value is ignored because we are busy or self-sufficient or stubborn. He knows our wounds. He knows our rejections and He too, sits beside you knowing every rejection you have felt.

But what He said from the very beginning is, “I chose you.”

He chose you as a beloved child of His. He chose you as a partner for the great wedding feast. He chose to walk along side you and hold you and comfort you and guide you. He chose to forgive every one of your sins and has unending patience for your short-comings. He gives you everything you need to live in love and His toolbox is filled and He has shown us how to use those tools through His life with us on earth in Christ.

He is devoted. He promises to never leave or forsake you.

 He puts His arms around you and holds the tops of your hands and arms and shows you how to move. He places His hands on you and blesses you. He lets you touch His wounds to prove it is Him. He lets you ask Him to do things for you. He only asks that you don’t reject Him and that you receive Him as LORD and Savior. That you don’t reject His gift of dying for you to come back to be with you for always in the brilliant cleansing through His perfect blood and holiness. So, that you wouldn’t reject His Name, but would love it as a child of His.

He chose you. And chooses you over and over again no matter where you stray or how you fail; He receives you with His arms around your neck the moment you come back to Him. He never thinks, “Why bother?” He continues to receive you because He chose you for always. His is the ultimate “Forever Home.” He can heal you from all past rejections because He takes those rejections on Himself. Ask Him to heal those areas of hurt and pain with His perfect love knowing His full acceptance of you. Know that you are chosen and loved.

 John 15:14-17  No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. 16You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. 17These things I command you, so that you will love one another.