Jesus Is Enough!
Hey everyone!
God woke me up this morning and told me to pick up my writing. The topic on my heart is rather easy given the conversations and phone calls that I have been receiving lately.
"Rejection"...
I have many friends. Brothers and sisters in Christ that really are struggling at work, at church, and just all around even in their own families with rejection. Rejection attacks us at the core of who we are. It destroys our self-esteem, and attacks who we are and our purpose in life. People leave churches because their ideas or preferences are rejected. People isolate themselves and start doing life alone (which is not biblical) because they are weary of continuous disapproval, rejection, not fitting in. I believe one of the greatest tools of Satan today in our young people and student ministry is rejection. So many GIFTED people submit to rejection from others and completely forfeit MAJOR spiritual blessings because they detoured from God's plan because of someone's attitude, words, behaviors, etc. OR simply because they FEARED they would fail, look stupid, or not be accepted.
Have you experienced a situation where you were in an environment where you were joyful, productive, and experiencing good things and at peace that you were where God called you to be...and within a matter of moments, minutes, or a few days things just flipped upside down because of how someone else started to treat you and misrepresent you to others? When we experience anger, spitefulness, gossip, and sort of feel targeted by others it is often spirits of rejection that are at work. I can not tell you how many times I have forfeited an opportunity to display the power of Christ in me because I immediately got emotional and began REACTING to the rejection and the environment around me. One of the toughest situations I have experienced was when what I thought to be a close friend turned out to be making trouble for me around every corner. Saying things that were not true, trying to make me look more emotional than I was, and always criticizing my performance, always questioning and comparing me to others. After experiencing this for several months I begged God to have me released from the person and the environment. God revealed to me that this person's actions were driven by years of rejection that she had experienced in her own family. God commanded me to not reject her, but to stop reacting to her ways of trying to reject me and have others reject me. I actually have compassion for her rather than unforgiveness and anger.
NONE OF US are designed to live with rejection, rather, we are ordained in Christ, as believers, to OVERCOME!!!
God never wanted us to feel rejected or abandon. He desires for you to know who you really are, and realize how deeply God loves, accepts, and appreciates you, so that you can live out the fullness of what all God has ordained you to be.
God's Word tells us that without being rooted and grounded in the love (and acceptance) of God, we cannot experience the fullness of God in our lives:
2 Corinthians 4: 18-19
16 Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. 17 For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. 18 So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.
Why do we go through this?
2 Corinthians 1:9 "so that we might rely on God"
God continues to show us that man will disappoint and it is biblical and commanded that we not put our faith in men. We experience rejection when we move our focus from who God says we are in His Word and what others wish on us, against us, or even for us.
Colossians 3:23
"Work willingly at whatever you do, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people."
Psalm 146:3 "Don't put your confidence in powerful people; there is no help for you there."
What do we do about it?
1. Find Your Identity in Christ and stand firm!
What or who defines who you are? Is it your job? Is it what your parents thought or think of you? Is it what your friends think of you? Is it how well you perform in the workplace? How much money you have? Is it how good of grades you get? Is it what you think of yourself? Is it how physically strong, fit, or tall you are? When you die, will those things continue to define who you are?
Rejection starves a person from love and acceptance that they were designed to receive. The problem is that when we turn to others or even ourselves for that love and acceptance, we are setting ourselves up for failure and the damage of rejection. Only God can be trusted as the source of our identity. When we find our identity in Christ, He promises that we are powered to stand firm in Him and we will not be moved!
2 Corinthians 1:21 tells us that in Christ, we are empowered to stand firm!
2. Forgive - FORGIVE
Forgive the people that are coming against you or misunderstanding you.
2 Corinthians 2:11 "Forgive 11 in order that Satan might not outwit us." Rejection causes emotional wounds, which if not cleansed and released, will grow and fester into spiritual wounds (such as unforgiveness, envy, blaming God, jealousy, etc.).
3. Get In His Word!!
Renew your mind! You will not remain in a state of feeling down and pushed by others if you will really get into what God says about you. Reading about what God says about who you are in Him makes reveals that what others say and do and think is absolutely powerless.
2 Corinthians 4:7 says:8 We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; 9 persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. 10 We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. 11 For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may also be revealed in our mortal body. 12 So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you.
God woke me up this morning and told me to pick up my writing. The topic on my heart is rather easy given the conversations and phone calls that I have been receiving lately.
"Rejection"...
I have many friends. Brothers and sisters in Christ that really are struggling at work, at church, and just all around even in their own families with rejection. Rejection attacks us at the core of who we are. It destroys our self-esteem, and attacks who we are and our purpose in life. People leave churches because their ideas or preferences are rejected. People isolate themselves and start doing life alone (which is not biblical) because they are weary of continuous disapproval, rejection, not fitting in. I believe one of the greatest tools of Satan today in our young people and student ministry is rejection. So many GIFTED people submit to rejection from others and completely forfeit MAJOR spiritual blessings because they detoured from God's plan because of someone's attitude, words, behaviors, etc. OR simply because they FEARED they would fail, look stupid, or not be accepted.
Have you experienced a situation where you were in an environment where you were joyful, productive, and experiencing good things and at peace that you were where God called you to be...and within a matter of moments, minutes, or a few days things just flipped upside down because of how someone else started to treat you and misrepresent you to others? When we experience anger, spitefulness, gossip, and sort of feel targeted by others it is often spirits of rejection that are at work. I can not tell you how many times I have forfeited an opportunity to display the power of Christ in me because I immediately got emotional and began REACTING to the rejection and the environment around me. One of the toughest situations I have experienced was when what I thought to be a close friend turned out to be making trouble for me around every corner. Saying things that were not true, trying to make me look more emotional than I was, and always criticizing my performance, always questioning and comparing me to others. After experiencing this for several months I begged God to have me released from the person and the environment. God revealed to me that this person's actions were driven by years of rejection that she had experienced in her own family. God commanded me to not reject her, but to stop reacting to her ways of trying to reject me and have others reject me. I actually have compassion for her rather than unforgiveness and anger.
NONE OF US are designed to live with rejection, rather, we are ordained in Christ, as believers, to OVERCOME!!!
God never wanted us to feel rejected or abandon. He desires for you to know who you really are, and realize how deeply God loves, accepts, and appreciates you, so that you can live out the fullness of what all God has ordained you to be.
God's Word tells us that without being rooted and grounded in the love (and acceptance) of God, we cannot experience the fullness of God in our lives:
2 Corinthians 4: 18-19
16 Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. 17 For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. 18 So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.
Why do we go through this?
2 Corinthians 1:9 "so that we might rely on God"
God continues to show us that man will disappoint and it is biblical and commanded that we not put our faith in men. We experience rejection when we move our focus from who God says we are in His Word and what others wish on us, against us, or even for us.
Colossians 3:23
"Work willingly at whatever you do, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people."
Psalm 146:3 "Don't put your confidence in powerful people; there is no help for you there."
What do we do about it?
1. Find Your Identity in Christ and stand firm!
What or who defines who you are? Is it your job? Is it what your parents thought or think of you? Is it what your friends think of you? Is it how well you perform in the workplace? How much money you have? Is it how good of grades you get? Is it what you think of yourself? Is it how physically strong, fit, or tall you are? When you die, will those things continue to define who you are?
Rejection starves a person from love and acceptance that they were designed to receive. The problem is that when we turn to others or even ourselves for that love and acceptance, we are setting ourselves up for failure and the damage of rejection. Only God can be trusted as the source of our identity. When we find our identity in Christ, He promises that we are powered to stand firm in Him and we will not be moved!
2 Corinthians 1:21 tells us that in Christ, we are empowered to stand firm!
2. Forgive - FORGIVE
Forgive the people that are coming against you or misunderstanding you.
2 Corinthians 2:11 "Forgive 11 in order that Satan might not outwit us." Rejection causes emotional wounds, which if not cleansed and released, will grow and fester into spiritual wounds (such as unforgiveness, envy, blaming God, jealousy, etc.).
3. Get In His Word!!
Renew your mind! You will not remain in a state of feeling down and pushed by others if you will really get into what God says about you. Reading about what God says about who you are in Him makes reveals that what others say and do and think is absolutely powerless.
2 Corinthians 4:7 says:8 We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; 9 persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. 10 We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. 11 For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may also be revealed in our mortal body. 12 So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you.
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