Dealing with Rejection

Have you ever prayed the prayer "O God I just want to know you better?"  Perhaps we have even breathed the words the Apostle Paul penned in Philippians 3:10 "…that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death…"  

Certainly knowing the many facets of the Father would include knowing His sufferings.  The gospel of John speaks to us of how Jesus suffered rejection.  He was rejected not only by his own family members, but by the community in which He was raised.  John 1:11 says "He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him."  What a sad thing when we think of it.  But Jesus experienced rejection from those to whom he was closest.  His disciples ran away from him at the hardest moment of his life on earth. 

If we are to experience the suffering of rejection we must also know of His deep love and affection for us.  We must believe that He accepts us and never rejects us.  It is comforting to realize that He didn't 'have' to choose us, but it was His pleasure to choose us "…in him before the foundation of the world."  (Ephesians 1:4)

Healing for rejection requires large doses of God's love being poured into our hearts and allowing our minds to be renewed so we see the rejection from His perspective.  God graces us with a renewed mind so the rejected can begin to think like the accepted that we truly are. God always has us on His mind and wants us to stay in him as He is in us.   That's really close.  Carolyn Allen