The room was quiet, and the only sounds were soft sobs as we gathered around our friend. We were crying with her, feeling that raw pain of rejection. We knew it well. Our prayer group had been honest about how the brutal punch of rejection had hit us all in the past year. For some, rejection had come from family members, others felt it from bosses, coworkers, and people they trusted.The enemy loves to grab that rejected feeling and twist it into an irrational fear that maybe God doesn’t have a plan for us after all. This fear is a corrupting companion, replacing trusted truths with hopeless lies. Satan knows what consumes and controls us. He will continue to throw rejection back at us. The more consumed we are with it, the more he can control our emotions, thinking and actions.
Rejection is defined as, “The act of throwing off or away, or of casting off or forsaking; refusal to accept or grant: as, the rejection of what is worthless.”
Even the sound of it can send us to a hopeless, lonely place. We all fear rejection and run from it. But I’ve sat with the word this year, turning it around to view it from all directions and finally deciding that it’s not so bad. In fact, I believe God has shown me that rejection can be a gift. I know what you’re thinking, “how is that possible?” It’s been an enlightening year as rejection and I have walked side by side. Here is what I’ve learned.
Rejection isn’t permanent. It can often feel like a dark tunnel we can’t escape, but it can also be a redirect – a holy redirect! As I look back on the rejections I’ve experienced during the past year, I realize they were answers to prayers I had been lifting up for quite a while; ones that I had almost given up on. Those raw emotions that feel so intense one day will lessen as time passes. I emerged from that tunnel into a new place, one that filled me with hope and fresh energy.
Rejection can be God’s protective covering. When I look back at the devastating feeling of rejection, I now know there were people and organizations God needed to remove from my life. They were not part of my destiny or future, and in fact, they were a hindrance to what God had waiting on the other side of rejection. So many times, we are blinded to truth because of evil’s clever disguise. I’m now at a place where I can thank God that rejection saved me from the disguises.
Rejection can redefine us. We have a choice to give rejection the power to define us negatively, or to refine us—even redefine us for something better! It can uproot the very things that keep us stuck, then heal us and put us on a path to real freedom.
Rejection teaches. It hurts deeply and leaves us with so many questions, but life-changing lessons reside in those lonely feelings of rejection. The lessons take us out of our comfort zone to places where we reevaluate what might need changing. We become stronger where we are weak and can discern truth from lies. Discernment and clarity emerge after the rejection.
Rejection is not a measure of your true worth. If someone doesn’t appreciate the entire package of YOU, that doesn’t change the truth that you are a priceless treasure. We are 
not defined by whether someone appreciates our looks, performance, values, or morals, and we shouldn’t allow them to label us. What if their evaluation of us is wrong? It usually is. Rest in knowing you you have a Savior who faced rejection all the way to the cross so you would know your value. You are blessed, chosen, loved, predestined, adopted, redeemed, forgiven, and lavished with grace. If you are facing that raw hurt of rejection and questioning your worth because of it, read Ephesians 1:3-14. Let it soak in.
not defined by whether someone appreciates our looks, performance, values, or morals, and we shouldn’t allow them to label us. What if their evaluation of us is wrong? It usually is. Rest in knowing you you have a Savior who faced rejection all the way to the cross so you would know your value. You are blessed, chosen, loved, predestined, adopted, redeemed, forgiven, and lavished with grace. If you are facing that raw hurt of rejection and questioning your worth because of it, read Ephesians 1:3-14. Let it soak in. The next time you face rejection, God may be protecting you, and handing you a gift of answered prayer you thought would never come. He sees what is ahead. Trust Him to get you to the other side. He will walk you to a safe place, out of the dark tunnel where you can look back and give thanks for rejection.
#redeemednotrejected #youarevalued #rejectioncanbeagift
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