Kindle Notes & Highlights
Ephesians 1:6: “To the praise of the glory of His [God’s] grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved” (nkjv).
Ephesians 1:6: “To the praise of the glory of His [God’s] grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved” (nkjv).
You are not rejected. You are accepted by the Lord and all His family. There is a place of love and acceptance waiting for you—and you can experience God wrapping His arms around you and welcoming you into His presence and into the worldwide family of all those who love and serve Him.
You are not rejected. You are accepted by the Lord and all His family. There is a place of love and acceptance waiting for you—and you can experience God wrapping His arms around you and welcoming you into His presence and into the worldwide family of all those who love and serve Him.
God can heal you of the wounds that come from rejection. He can help you to accept yourself and even enable you to show His love to others. The first step to the help God offers is to recognize the nature of your problem and to understand the depths of this issue of rejection in your life.
God can heal you of the wounds that come from rejection. He can help you to accept yourself and even enable you to show His love to others. The first step to the help God offers is to recognize the nature of your problem and to understand the depths of this issue of rejection in your life.
A happy heart makes the face cheerful, but heartache crushes the spirit. (Proverbs 15:13)
A happy heart makes the face cheerful, but heartache crushes the spirit. (Proverbs 15:13)
A man’s spirit sustains him in sickness, but a crushed spirit who can bear? (Proverbs 18:14)
A man’s spirit sustains him in sickness, but a crushed spirit who can bear? (Proverbs 18:14)
Dear Lord Jesus, I want to begin by admitting that I have wounds of rejection buried deep in my spirit. I bring them now into the light of Your presence, asking You to pour out Your healing power upon me. In place of the rejection I have experienced in life, I receive Your healing, Your compassion, and Your acceptance. I know You want to help me and heal me now, and I open my heart to receive the acceptance that is mine. In Your name, Jesus. Amen.
Dear Lord Jesus, I want to begin by admitting that I have wounds of rejection buried deep in my spirit. I bring them now into the light of Your presence, asking You to pour out Your healing power upon me. In place of the rejection I have experienced in life, I receive Your healing, Your compassion, and Your acceptance. I know You want to help me and heal me now, and I open my heart to receive the acceptance that is mine. In Your name, Jesus. Amen.
For this healing to take place, we must first understand the true nature of rejection. We need to ask, “How does it occur? What causes the wounding?” Once we have dealt with these questions, we can begin to ask, “How can wounds of rejection be treated?”
For this healing to take place, we must first understand the true nature of rejection. We need to ask, “How does it occur? What causes the wounding?” Once we have dealt with these questions, we can begin to ask, “How can wounds of rejection be treated?”
God designed human nature so that every baby born into the world would crave this kind of security. A child can never truly be satisfied, fulfilled, or secure without parental love, particularly love from a father. Any person who has been deprived of this kind of love is inevitably exposed to the wound of rejection. Entire generations of modern-day fathers have failed their children. Thus, we have numerous generations of young people whose deepest, most basic problem is rejection.
God designed human nature so that every baby born into the world would crave this kind of security. A child can never truly be satisfied, fulfilled, or secure without parental love, particularly love from a father. Any person who has been deprived of this kind of love is inevitably exposed to the wound of rejection. Entire generations of modern-day fathers have failed their children. Thus, we have numerous generations of young people whose deepest, most basic problem is rejection.
See, I will send you the prophet Elijah before that great and dreadful day of the Lord comes. He will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers; or else I will come and strike the land with a curse. (Malachi 4:5–6)
Here is the key question in determining the form this healing will take: What is the opposite of rejection? We answered this question in the previous chapter—it is acceptance. This is precisely what God offers you and me when we come to Him through Jesus. “He made us accepted in the Beloved” (Ephesians 1:6 nkjv)—that is, in Jesus.
When you come to God through Jesus, you are as accepted and as highly favored by Him as Jesus Himself. You become a member of God’s own family. Amazing as it may seem, God loves you in just the same way He loves Jesus!
you may be putting a dressing of religion over the wound you carry. But somehow it refuses to heal. Why? Because there is something inside that is causing it to fester. What is the solution? Open your heart to the Holy Spirit and allow Him to probe deep into the problem. If the Holy Spirit’s probe touches a piece of shrapnel, yelp if you must, but don’t resist! Ask the Lord to use His forceps to remove the problem. Only then can you apply the proper dressing that will really heal it.
the most damaging kind of rejection comes when a child perceives rejection from a parent.
Feelings of Intrusion
Withholding of Love
Inability to Express Love
every child is born into the world with one primary longing. They are longing for love—primarily, the love of a father. I believe that it is in the arms of a father where a child learns real security. A child who hasn’t experienced such love is usually an insecure person. There is something about the strength of a father that gives a son or daughter a sense of absolute security. That child is confident. He knows, “Daddy’s got me in his arms; nothing can happen to me.”
Rejection is not merely an evil in itself, but it also opens the door for various other negative, destructive forces to move in and gradually take over a person’s life. Rejection truly is a root from which much that is harmful can grow.
rejection is not always outwardly visible. It can be a hidden, inner attitude that we carry around. As we have seen, the problem lies in the area of the spirit. I have learned by experience that every negative emotion, reaction, and attitude has a corresponding spirit associated with it.
Defensiveness says, “All right, I’ll go on with my life. But I will never let anybody come near enough to wound me like that again. I’ll always keep a wall between me and other people.”
“Do not be afraid; you will not suffer shame. Do not fear disgrace; you will not be humiliated. You will forget the shame of your youth and remember no more the reproach of your widowhood. For your Maker is your husband—the LORD Almighty is His name—the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer; He is called the God of all the earth. The LORD will call you back as if you were a wife deserted and distressed in spirit—a wife who married young, only to be rejected,” says your God. (Isaiah 54:4–6)
You are suffering from shame if you feel that somehow you are not fit to meet other people or you cannot look anyone straight in the face. People who are suffering from shame will often avert or lower their eyes when approached by another person. Shame is debilitating. It keeps us from functioning as healthy human beings.
you can always open up to the Lord. He already knows all your hidden secrets, so you can talk with Him freely about them. You can never embarrass or shock Him. Most importantly, the Lord will never reject you. You can tell Him the worst experience you have ever endured, and He will respond, “Yes, and I still love you.”
the primary result of rejection is an inability to receive or communicate love. It is very hard for a person who has never experienced being loved to transmit love to others.
We love because [God] first loved us. (1 John 4:19)
The word of the Lord came to me: “What do you people mean by quoting this proverb about the land of Israel: ‘The fathers eat sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge’? As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign Lord, you will no longer quote this proverb in Israel. For every living soul belongs to Me, the father as well as the son—both alike belong to Me. The soul who sins is the one who will die.… He [who] follows My decrees and faithfully keeps My laws…is righteous; he will surely live, declares the Sovereign Lord.” (Ezekiel 18:1–4, 9)
Proverbs 3:5–8 says: Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths. Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the Lord, and depart from evil. It shall be health to thy navel, and marrow to thy bones. (kjv)
1. Giving In
rejection ↓ loneliness ↓ self-pity ↓ misery ↓ depression ↓ despair or hopelessness ↓ suicide or death by other causes
2. Holding Out
3. Fighting Back
The gospel is founded on three simple truths: Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures; He was buried; and He rose again on the third day. The biblical declaration recorded in 1 Corinthians 15:3–4 affirms that the whole gospel is based on these facts. Then, faith appropriates these facts. Faith begins with the facts; it accepts, believes, and acts on them. After facts and faith come our feelings. If your faith is based predominately on feelings, you will be a very inconsistent, unstable person. Feelings may change as circumstances alter, but the facts will never change. If we are
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When we trust our feelings, we are open to deception. The only unchanging, valid source of facts is the Bible. Faith has the attitude, “God is with me. He won’t let me go. The Bible is truth. I believe it.” If you live in this way, your feelings will come into line with the facts. But if you begin with your feelings, you will never get to the facts. Thus, it is an absolute priority that you begin with the facts found in the Word of God.
First of all, God did not make a lot of different provisions for each of the various needs of humanity. Instead, He made one, all-inclusive provision that covers the needs of every person: the sacrificial death of Jesus on the cross. Second, what took place on the cross was an exchange that God Himself had planned. All the evil consequences of our sins came upon Jesus so that, in return, all the benefits of Jesus’s sinless obedience might be made available to us. For our part, we have done nothing to deserve these benefits, and we have no merits or rights by which to claim them. The benefits
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Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.” He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles. (Galatians 3:13–14)
God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5:21)
For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, so that you through His poverty might become rich. (2 Corinthians 8:9)
[Jesus] suffered death, so that by the grace of God He might taste death for everyone. (Hebrews 2:9)
Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, scorning its shame. (Hebrews 12:2)
I offered My back to those who beat Me, My cheeks to those who pulled out My beard; I did not hide My face from mocking and spitting. (Isaiah 50:6)
Instead of their shame My people will receive a double portion, and instead of disgrace they will rejoice in their inheritance. (Isaiah 61:7)
Hebrews 2:10 tells us that through the suffering and death of Jesus, God purposed to “[bring] many sons to glory.” Joy, honor, glory—all are offered to us in place of shame and humiliation.
