Four Ways Rejection Can Benefit Us Part 2

by Jessica Van Roekel | Jan 26, 2023 | Reframing Rejection Book

Four Ways Rejection Can Benefit Us

Rejection can benefit us because it impacts our spiritual growth.  We partner with God when we say yes to walking in his ways and resisting the devil. As we continue from part 1 of Four Ways Rejection Can Be Good [insert link], we explore the ways we can use rejection for our benefit.

Rejection can benefit us because it leads to refinement.

Refinement comes through rejection. Hebrews 12:1-2 talks about throwing off the things that hinder so that we “can run with endurance the race that is set before us.” The power of a no means that we reject things like doubt, slander, or our most troublesome, sidetracking sins. When we reject these tendencies, we grow spiritually.

Refinement happens step by step as we fix our eyes on Jesus and his example of perseverance and victory. We run the race of life and encounter hardships along the way. Some we create and some we experience as consequences to another’s actions. Will we be bitter and resentful? That’s an internal response which can translate to a negative viewpoint, but we can reject those thought patterns. Instead, we can view them through God’s lens of “What does he want to do in this situation and how will he reveal his glory.”

Other hardships originate from within us because we entertain thoughts which lead to sinful choices, which lead to consequences that we must bear. A careless word struck at the right- wrong moment can leave devastating consequences in a relationship. Turning our back on the Lord’s promised faithfulness because we struggle with his supposed silence can lead us down a path away from God’s best for us. We can choose to reject the temptations that pull us away from spiritual maturity. This is how rejection can be good when we use it as a tool for growth.

Rejection can benefits us because it teaches us about resistance.

We are in a war that takes place in the outskirts of what we can see with our physical eyes—a spiritual war. God has an enemy and that enemy attacks us. He studies us and knows our weaknesses, but we are not weaponless. When Jesus is our Lord and Savior and we have confessed with our mouth and believed in our heart that he is Lord, our weapon is the name of Jesus.

We can speak the name of Jesus over our lives and reject Satan’s attacks. We don’t have to succumb. We are not powerless, we are powerful, not because of who we are, but because of who is in us. Use rejection to resist him. The enemy of our soul wants nothing more than to beat us down, wear us out, and fill our heads with lies to render us ineffective and impotent. Rejection can be good when we use it to resist these attacks of the enemy.

I know rejection hurts, especially when it comes from an unexpected place or person who you thought was safe. Sometimes the people and circumstances in our lives become the most important thing to us. But our hope is in God alone, not people or circumstances and sometimes rejection can be good because it can point our hope to the One who promises never to leave us or forsake us.

Will you let God show you how rejection can be good?

“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose,” Romans 8:28, ESV.

Four Ways Rejection Can Be Good Part 1

by Jessica Van Roekel | Jan 17, 2023 | Reframing Rejection Book

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.