Forty Days Without FearSample

OVERCOMING FEAR OF REJECTION

  All of us have experienced rejection in some way, whether we were the last to be picked for the sports team, or we asked someone out and they declined, or we went for a job and they never called us back. Rejection is, unfortunately, part of life, but the question is, when we face it, how do we deal with it? Do we live in fear of it happening again and do everything to avoid that? If so, fear of rejection can affect all our relationships, limit us, and hold us back from all that God has for us.  

We can see how much fear of rejection grips us all if we look at social media. Social media has become more than a sharing and connecting platform; it has become an affirmation device. When we upload a photo to Instagram, we can wonder and worry if we will be liked and accepted, or will we be trolled? We become fixated on the number of ‘likes,’ and if it doesn’t get the acceptance or affirmation we hoped for, we feel rejected and we delete it, as if it never went up. 

We can spend our lives trying to get people to like and accept us, but the truth is we all need to experience the one ‘Like’ that truly makes a difference. Jesus died for us because He loves us, and love is the opposite of rejection. He knows our every thought, word and action, past, present, and future, yet He loves, accepts us and says He will never leave us or reject us. 

We will always have moments of rejection by people, but Jesus gives us our identity through His love and acceptance, and that frees us from the fear of rejection because it can never be taken away. 

Action: Ask God to show us what He loves about us, specifically! Then immediately write down what we think, see, hear or feel. When the flow stops read it back and be amazed!