Dealing with rejection

 by Yvette van Niekerk

Isaiah 43: 4 "You are precious and honoured in my sight."

Reading this passage, make me feel accepted and loved. I do not have to continue down the road of feeling left out or not valuable. John 1 verse 11 describes how Jesus Christ was rejected: "He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him." What did Jesus do? Did He sit down and cry and feel sorry for himself? No, he didn't worry about their attitudes he moved on to where people gladly accepted Him. He said to the disciples: "whoever will not receive you nor hear your words when you depart from that house or city, shake off the dust from your feet." Matthew 10 verse 14.

Constant and repeated rejection tends to validate our fear that we are inadequate. Especially when the opinions of our loved one, people we place value on effects our thinking. Ironically, our fear of rejection ultimately results in us being rejected because people feed off our emotions. The funny thing is, when people perceive that you have low self-esteem, and you have low regard for who you are, they zone in on it, and deal with you accordingly. My daughter tells me that we teach people how to value us, by how much we value ourselves. How does it work? You need to set the boundary and express a preference. Set limitations on how others interact with you.  If you do not do that, people tend to think you have none and their behaviour towards you is based on that.

Even when Jesus was rejected He never responded in that way and didn't tolerate continued rejection, He didn't stay there He moved on. Jesus went where He was celebrated not rejected. He recognized their behaviour and shook it off. He went where people were interested in receiving Him in person, who wanted to know His purpose and His power. Jesus has God's full acceptance, therefore, He didn't fear our rejection. We have God's full acceptance too. "Yvette, you are precious and honoured in my sight, and ... I love you."

My first reaction to dealing with rejection today, to realize that God's opinion of me is He loves me.

Prayer

Father God, thank you, for today's word, "I am precious and honoured in Your sight." Lord, Jesus Christ thank you, that You accept me just the way that I am, I feel valued and I can carry on. Amen

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