‘Rejection is God’s protection’ – Alice Hunt

Someone reading this quote in the midst of feeling rejected can easily wonder, ‘What kind of nonsense is this?’, ‘Why, if God is good, would He use pain as a means to protect?’ We have all found ourselves tangled in its intricate web and had these questions as rejection has whispered in our ear spinning thoughts of depression, despair, uneasiness, anger, and frustration, weaving its way through our mind as we experience the pains of life.

At first it sinks in casual and quiet moving into our mind in response to an encounter, then it lingers twisting what would be a legitimate mismatch for a job, an unhealthy relationship, miscommunication or oversight into negative self-talk that misconstrues the situation causing us to accept what our mind is telling us.

When you’re there, it feels as if you’re in a pit trying hard to jump, claw, and reach your way out, but rejection is the voice that so strongly pushes you down causing your grasp to loosen, and your fingers to slip. It isolates you and causes you to take your eyes off of everything you know, and the One who has the power to shift your thoughts, and tricks us all together by causing us to forget that Jesus is right there and that He knows all too well this feeling.

John 1:11 tells us,

‘He came to his own, and his own received him not.’

As Christians, we willingly accept that Jesus’ rejection led to our own protection. We eagerly embrace it, and know that without it there would be no salvation.  But it’s a different story when rejection becomes personal. When it does, we get stuck in our own negative thoughts and cannot see outside of them enough to realize that He is right beside us with the outstretched hand of His word.

Romans 8:31,

‘If God be for us, who can be against us?’

Psalms 34:17-20.

‘When the righteous cry for help, the Lord hears and delivers them out of all their troubles. The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all. He keeps all his bones; not one of them is broken.’

Did you read those words, and see the power therein? They’re quite astonishing as they declare to us that the God who has been in our shoes, stands ready to pull us through our struggle, in fact, His promise is so strong that He declares that, ‘He will keep all the bones of the righteous, not one of them is broken,’…even if we feel as though they are ready to snap…

If you are overwhelmed in this feeling today, read the words found in 1 Peter 2:4,

‘As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious.’

These words are to you. They are the lamp to your feet and the light to your path that will lead you from the pit of rejection. You are chosen and precious in His sight – and you have a decision to make. Are you going to sit there and allow those feelings of rejection to continue to create that web within your mind, or are you going to believe what He has said? Make up your mind today, and Choose Him.