As one whom his mother comforts, so I will comfort you;
And you will be comforted in Jerusalem. Isaiah 66:13
Most of us have felt the sting of rejection
Sometimes it isn’t a sting, it is like a knife being twisted and it’s long-lasting
It depends on the circumstances and the person doing the rejection
If it was a parent or someone of extreme magnitude in formative years,
that can have life-long ramifications to the person being rejected
A friend or lesser important relative can mean less pain and significance
if the person was already pretty secure in their own right
A person who had been tossed around due to poor parenting
or no parenting, they might be less likely to handle rejection well
How solid a person already was before a rejection incident occurred,
if you were already solid in knowing you were loved,
or if the person doing the rejection had the job to help you be secure,
and many other variables affects how we deal with rejection
For example, one parent may be loving and consistent
and the other parent not
Whatever the case, it doesn’t feel good
and being rejected can make you feel less than
Our history can affect our relationship with God
He is perfect and loves us with an everlasting love, an unconditional love
No one loves as well as God
We may not love ourselves the same way
We may have never been truly loved before we encountered Christ
We may have barriers or faults due to damage that has been done
God sees through all that rejection
and Jesus works to bring healing and understanding to us
that has harmed us in our past
This is also a good reason for us to be loving to all we encounter,
both believers and non believers as a good witness for Christ
Jesus was rejected
He knows how it feels
He also warned us that we would be rejected for His name’s sake
The more we allow Jesus to bring our past hurts to Him,
the more secure we become in His love,
which helps us to be able to better serve Him,
to love others better, more like He would
God speaks multiple times of how His people rejected Him, in His word,
in the major and minor prophets with whom God often shared His heart
Toughen up, harsh rejection from the world is coming
God spoke to Moses about being rejected, and Noah:
They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them: they have made them a molten calf, and have worshipped it, and have sacrificed thereunto, and said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which have brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. Exodus 32:8
And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the Lord that He had made man on the earth,
and it grieved Him at His heart. Genesis 6:5-6
The Psalms has a few lines where the feeling of rejection
felt like it came from God to the psalmist
To be rejected by God would be the ultimate negative experience
The interesting thing is those who are truly rejected by God here on earth
are probably the ones who don’t give it a thought
and those of us who sometimes do feel rejected by God,
are not being rejected by Him at all
God withdraws His presence at times so that we can feel it
It is then we notice His absence,
which must be why He withdraws Himself in the first place, for us to notice He isn’t as close as we’d like Him to be and that is our responsibility
We are the ones who do the separating from God, not vice versa
Sin is a main component of that separation
If we choose to participate in sin or love the world,
we will be separated from God by our own choosing
and that might feel like rejection
If we draw near to God, He will draw near to us
Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners;
and purify your hearts, ye double minded. James 4:8