Quit Daydreaming: How to Wake Up & Break Free (Part 3)Sample

Dealing with Rejection

Everyone wants to be accepted, but life, in all of its ups and downs, doesn’t comply with our desires most of the time.

That being said, everyone has faced some sort of rejection at some point in their lives. While this is a universal truth, some people are more vulnerable to the sting of rejection than others.

Even more so, those who have learned to shake off the emotion initially may eventually become discouraged if they experience constant encounters with it.

While on the surface level rejection may appear to be the feeling you get when someone does not reciprocate your affection, it is actually an oppressive spirit that manifests itself through loneliness, bitterness, and distrust.

I know from experience a person dealing with the spirit of rejection may also struggle with explosive anger, self-pity, and a fatalistic “woe is me” worldview.

Indeed, Satan uses this spirit to make us believe nobody likes us and to convince us the whole world is out to get us. The devil knows the important role relationships play in helping us persevere through hardships.

That’s why he does this to make us feel like we are better off alone, so we can revert to isolation and close ourselves off to any form of external help.

The thing about rejection is if the negative feelings it produces are not put into proper perspective, a person who feels slighted can become a ticking time bomb. Even if they don’t shut themselves off from others, they may display a myriad of toxic traits that drive people away. This ironically repeats the bitter cycle of rejection.

The bright side? No one knew rejection like Jesus. The prophet Isaiah said the son of God was a man rejected by many and well acquainted with suffering. After all, this was the same guy who went around healing others but was beaten, spat on, and made to carry a cross by the very people He performed miracles for.

What did Christ do when the people chose a revolutionary over Him and condemned Him to death? He accepted His fate and was led like a sheep to slaughter.

Amazingly, even though they abused Him, nailed His hands and feet to a rugged cross, and pierced His side, in one of His last breaths, Jesus asked His heavenly Father to forgive His accusers.

Most of us will never experience the type of agony Christ endured on the cross to be the atoning sacrifice for the world’s sins. That fact alone should encourage us to be willing to forgive quickly.