When Shelia was taken by ambulance to the hospital for a suspected heart attack, her husband called their adult daughter to let her know. The daughter said that she’d heard about the heart attack but she wasn’t coming to the hospital. A few months later, Shelia was at the grocery store and saw her daughter pushing a cart down the same aisle. As soon as her daughter looked up and saw Shelia, the daughter wheeled her cart around and went the other direction.

As Shelia wept in deep heartache, she wondered, where did I go wrong? Why doesn’t she want me to be a part of her life?

We all can relate to the reality of this fictitious story.

If any of you, as I have, struggled with letting go of rejection I pray this blog resonates in your spirit and will lead you to deliverance.

Rejection! It’s painful. Even if you know why someone ended your friendship, walked away from your marriage, ghosted you, hurt you in any way or simply vanished from your life, it doesn’t necessarily stop the pain.

Rejection often leads to emotional pain making it easy for lies to begin sticking to the walls of our minds. This type of emotional pain also invites in the lie that no one can understand how painful and broken you feel after being rejected.

Jesus understands.

Jesus knew that He would be rejected before He even stepped into our world. Centuries before Jesus’s birth, the prophet Isaiah wrote that Jesus would be “despised and rejected by men,” (Isaiah 53:3 ESV). Jesus came to earth knowing that God’s chosen people, Jesus’s own people, would not only say “no” to having a relationship with Him, but would also voice the ultimate rejection when they shouted, ““Let him be crucified!” (Matthew 27:22-23 ESV).         

Imagine what it must have been like for Jesus to look up through his swollen and bloody eyes to see the people who once begged him for healing now screaming for His death. How awful the emotional pain as His bruised body dragged His cross toward Golgotha while the people cursed Him even though a short time before they’d clamored to see Him teach and perform miracles.

Perhaps thinking about how Jesus was rejected has triggered your rejection memories. At this moment anger rises, tears fill your eyes with confusion, pain pierces your heart and questions swim in your mind.

You’re not alone! The question is do you want to remain bound by the emotional devastation of rejection or are you ready to be free?

The key to freedom is not focusing on how to deal with rejection, rather how to let it go.

The best path is to invite God to fill that empty space with His healing love.

Letting go of rejection begins with relentlessly leaning into God’s foundation of love and connection that another person can never take away from you.

That foundation is constructed of two parts: a spiritual pedestal and a practical pedestal.

Spiritual Pedestal: Trust that God will never abandon you, even if you’ve rejected Him.

The truth is that God will never desert us, even if others choose to leave. God’s love for you cannot be lost or earned (Romans 5:8 ESV). His love is steadfast, and you can always count on it (Romans 8:38-39 ESV).

Practical Pedestal: – Quit Taking It Personally.

Other people’s actions don’t determine your worthiness for love or connection. “ But the Lord was with Joseph and showed him steadfast love and gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison.” (Genesis 39:21ESV). Genesis 37

There will never be a time in life when we don’t feel rejected. Perspective is the key in not succumbing to the emotional pain of rejection.

Jesus was rejected and despised. Yet it didn’t deter Him from moving forward in God’s plan and purpose.

You have been rejected and despise, but be determined to use it as fuel to move forward in God’s plan and purpose for your life.

Prayer: Heavenly Father, I’m so grateful that You will never leave me. My heart is heavy. Show me how to relentlessly lean into Your love for me. Fill my heart and overshadow me with the knowledge of Your love. Heal the wounds of rejection as only you can so I can live full of hope again. In Jesus’ Name, Amen. 

PEARLStoPONDER: Rejection happens…..you have to be intentional in learning how not to waddle in it so that you can help someone else.

John 15:18--“If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you.

Psalm 27:10--For my father and my mother have forsaken me, but the Lord will take me in.

2 Corinthians 12:9-- But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.