Rejection can be good even though it brings us so much heartache. We know the pain of a friendship gone awry, a family member who turns on us, or a society that tells us we’re less than because we don’t fit the cultural norm. These are the external rejections that impact us, but there are internal rejections too.
We are an enemy to ourselves by the words we use to talk to and about ourselves. On the other hand, we also have an enemy who seeks to destroy us because he hates God. Satan isolates us when he tells we are reject-able and deserve rejection.
Feeling rejectable wears on our self-perception, but with God’s help, we can flip the script on it and discover four ways how rejection can be good in our lives. In this post, we will explore two of the ways: redirection and restoration. The second part of this post can be found here.
Rejection Leads to Redirection
Redirection can be a benefit of rejection. Sometimes a relationship turns sour, but we hold onto it, desperate to keep it. Letting go is hard and so we continue, unaware that the bridge went out and we’re barreling toward disaster.
In other instances, the job we worked so hard for ends. We’re let go after years of employment. We wonder what now and sit reeling from this unexpected redirection, but God can use it to point us where he wants us to go. In his hands, it becomes a signpost for our next step.
God can also use difficult church relationships to redirect us to a body of believers where we will both serve the body and be ministered to. When we deal with rejection from a church, we can be tempted to reject the body of Christ. But if we take God at his word when he says not to forsake the gathering together, then we can trust that he will redirect our steps to the church he wants us to attend.
What seems like a closed door, can be used by God to point us to the open door right behind us. Rejection can be good when God uses it to redirect us.
Rejection Leads to Restoration
Rejection leads to restoration when we fully surrender our life’s experiences to the Lord and allow him to make us new. Sometimes rejection highlights areas in our life that need his healing touch. And other times rejection leaves gaping holes that God fills with himself. This is when our lives become a testimony of his glory. God repairs with cracked places in our life with his power and grace.
Brokenness is part of this life. Rejection happens on a regular basis. To accept God’s healing and freedom, means we must accept Christ’s brokenness on our behalf. Jesus Christ knew rejection, and he endured for our sake because he loved us first. Feelings of worthlessness and insecurity often follow someone who’s life has been wrecked by rejection. It’s these areas that God can use rejection to heal these broken places within us by turning our eyes toward Jesus.
It’s God’s love for us that makes good out of the brokenness caused by rejection. He heals the broken places and restores us. He makes us new. He trades our insecurity for security in him. He exchanges our sense of self-loss with our sense of self-founded-ness in him. We don’t find ourselves in other people’s opinions, but in God’s high and holy view of us. He loves us. He cherishes us. He desires us. And when we receive that truth and let it take root in our hearts, rejection can be the tool that drives us to the cross where we will find the healing and hope we desperately desire.
