Rejection shows its ugly head with a variety of faces such as these. When a parent tells a child, “I wish you had never been born”. When your spouse doesn’t value you. When you are single and wonder why you haven’t gotten married yet. When you are bullied in school. When you are constantly criticized such that it is clear you don’t measure up. When your work/ministry/service is taken for granted and you are rarely thanked. When you are rarely if ever encouraged. When you give and give to a person and they don’t express appreciation. When you go through a divorce. When you are abused. When a parent wishes you were a different gender. When legalistic teaching/preaching paints a picture of God always being disappointed with you. When a person shames you. When a family member constantly says hurtful things. When you are mad at yourself often. When you don’t get very many likes on social media. This list would go on for many pages if this was a book because there are three certainties in life. 1. Death 2. Taxes 3. Rejection.
How do we reject rejection? First and foremost, our best weapon to defeat rejection is to remind ourselves that this person, situation, organization, or teaching is not our source of acceptance. Only God is. Why? Because He is the only unchanging One who accepts us unconditionally. But we must be convinced that His acceptance is Biblically based and therefore true. This will help you.
He accepts us unconditionally because He made us righteous and forgiven in Christ. Thankfully, our sins, failures, or negative opinions by others cannot undo this. Also, our successes, obedience, and positive opinions by others cannot increase this. Why? Because God’s unconditional acceptance is IN CHRIST not in our behavior. Take a look at these Scriptures.
Ephesians 1:7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace. 2 Corinthians 5:21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
When we experience rejection, there may be a need to confront the person, and there is most often a need to forgive them. However, whether we are led by the Spirit to do either or both of those, it builds us up in Christ when we tell our Father something like this. “Thank you Father that I am unconditionally accepted in Christ and that He alone is my source of acceptance.”
Finally, let’s all be careful to rely on God and his truth about our acceptance rather than our feelings. Even I need to sometimes pray, “Father, I know that what I am feeling is not consistent with the truth. I choose to believe that you unconditionally accept me in Christ, regardless of my feelings.” When I do this, it usually doesn’t take long before my feelings begin to line up with the truth.
*Choose to pray to your Father that you believe you are unconditionally accepted in Christ alone.
In Christ Alone,
Mark Maulding
President and Founder
