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Dismissed. Disregarded. Forged apart. These experiences sideline us from life and rob us of peace in {our relationships}. Phrases reduce. Actions pierce. They steal life from us, but there’s hope. God’s peace can nonetheless reign in the midst of a battle raging in our hearts after we seize onto God’s hand. It’s just like the story of just a little boy hanging onto an even bigger boy’s hand as they raced to the cellar within the face of a twister. The wind lifted the little boy into the air, however he gripped his cousin’s hand and made it to security.
When rejection blows into our life, it’s like we’re racing a twister to security. The ache of disregard sends our hearts right into a tailspin, and we are able to get caught within the harm it causes. Our hearts rage with anger and bitterness. We spend far an excessive amount of time mulling the dialog over in our heads, analyzing what we stated and what they stated. Our coronary heart turns towards us, and we entertain ideas that point out we deserve what we acquired as a result of we’re not likable, and we shouldn’t anticipate every other form of end result. Lastly, we accuse God of not stopping this, and we demand he does one thing.
Once we say sure to a private relationship with God, he makes us new. It’s stunning and fantastic, however on the similar time, we nonetheless have previous mindsets, habits, and default responses to the circumstances we encounter. Rejection strikes a harmful blow, and, in our ache, we attain for our previous methods of responding to the heartache, which might result in extra destruction in {our relationships} with God, ourselves, and different folks. Transformation takes time and a willingness to wade into the muddy waters of sifting the previous patterns from the brand new mind-set.
Into the Mud
Rejection is a three-pronged weapon that wounds three areas in our lives: our relationship with others, how we view ourselves, and our understanding of God. In our ache, we are able to wallow within the mud, splashing it throughout others, or we are able to use it to create one thing. Like a potter who provides water to the clay to make mud to form it into one thing stunning, we are able to belief God to make one thing good out of one thing unhealthy.
The Israelites spent centuries making mud bricks for the Egyptians. They knew years of slavery and felt deserted by God. Their place of rescue throughout Joseph’s management in Egypt turned their place of rejection. Joseph stood second to Pharoah, and God made a approach to keep away from the famine by guiding them to Egypt. However finally, the brand new Pharaohs forgot about Joseph and considered the Israelites as a menace, in order that they sought to enslave them. God didn’t forsake the Israelites, and he made a means for them to be free. Rejection could make us really feel deserted, however God guarantees by no means to go away us or forsake us. Once we flip to God, we are able to rely on him to make a means for us too.
Flip the Script
Our default response to rejection is to fixate on the exterior occasion, flip our unfavourable ideas towards ourselves, and eventually level an accusing finger at God. A brand new approach to take care of disregard and rejection is to start out with God. Reframing rejection entails bringing all our ache to him and dumping each unfavourable thought and emotion into his lap. We come to him unedited and sincere. Then he helps us sift by way of the ideas and emotions, redirecting us to let go of the issues that want letting go. That is how he makes use of them to deliver us to a different degree of non secular maturity.
In Psalm 62:8, the Psalmist encourages us to specific our hearts to God. “Belief in him always, O folks; pour out your coronary heart earlier than him; God is a refuge for us.” Our ache can pull us away from the very supply of our consolation. When our hearts break, we may be tempted to assemble the shards and carry them in our pockets, the place they proceed to chop us. However after we depart all of the items on the toes of Jesus, he begins to place them again collectively once more. We’re left with scars that inform a narrative of his light faithfulness.
These scars change into stuffed together with his grace. I broke an ornamental plate, and as a substitute of throwing it away, I superglued it again collectively. The plate resumed its round form because the bigger items got here collectively. The smaller items had been a bit trickier and messier, however this plate turned an emblem of how God works in our life. His grace fills the cracks, and his mercy glues the items collectively once more. In rejection experiences, our notion of ourselves can shatter, and the shortage of forgiveness towards others can preserve us damaged. Nonetheless, after we start with God, we obtain the grace and mercy to forgive and to maintain our id in Christ intact.
Intern at Jesus’ Toes
When Pharoah lastly advised the Israelites to go, they walked away from Egypt dressed for battle. They had been lastly let out! Think about the bravado they felt as they carried off Egypt’s gold and silver. But, God knew them higher than they knew themselves. He didn’t take them to their freedom by way of essentially the most direct route. They might have been dressed for battle—weapons in hand and armor on—however they didn’t have the warrior’s mindset. God had set them free, however he took them to freedom by way of the desert.
In our non secular journeys, we face desert roads and impassable seas too. In our battles with constant disregard and rejection, we are able to have all of the gear we have to battle the battles, just like the Israelites, however not have the interior fortitude to face the battle. Interning at Jesus’ toes means we stroll into the desert, trusting him with our hearts, together with our ache over previous disregard and the concern of future rejections—and follow religion, hope, and perception in what he says about us and settle for his constant presence.
Crossing Our Purple Sea
Strolling by religion begins with small steps towards God. We develop into our therapeutic as we decide to let go of bitterness about previous rejections together with the untruths we’ve believed for too lengthy about God and the way we understand ourselves. Flipping the script on our default reactions to rejection is step one we take. We are able to let rejection enslave us once more, or we are able to repair our consideration on the liberty in entrance of us.
The Lord can use rejection experiences to revive, redirect, and refine us. At instances, he makes use of them to level our toes in a special route. Even in ache, we are able to belief him to steer us onward into a brand new future. Different instances, rejection reveals areas in our lives that want refinement. Our transformation entails the renewal of our minds by rejecting thought processes and attitudes that don’t line up with God’s Phrase. Restoration comes after we give up our damaged hearts to him. He places us collectively once more and infuses us with higher quantities of his mercy and beauty.
The subsequent time rejection shatters your life, pause earlier than you reply. Take each damaged piece to God, give him the ugly emotions and ideas, and share your harm and confusion with him. He’ll meet you within the mess and lead you to higher therapeutic, belief, and freedom in him.
Picture Credit score: ©iStock/Getty Pictures Plus/interstid
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