First, before you close this article because you do not want to hear anything I have to say (because I am pretty sure this is a touchy subject for a lot of people), just know it was a hard subject for me to write on until recently.
Who wants to talk about how it feels to be rejected. Who wants to talk about being left out, walked away from, or even their loneliness times? NO ONE, right?
Well, I am here to tell you, talking about them makes them real, and when they are real, God can help you heal. So recently I have been reading a book called Uninvited by Lysa Terkeurst and this book could not be more appropriate for anyone dealing with rejection. ( I HIGHLY recommend the book to everyone.) When I first started reading the book, I had to deal without of truths that I did not want to face. I had to learn the difference between my feelings and what the truth really was.
"Rejection steals the best of who I am by reinforcing the worst of what's been said to me." - Lysa Terkeurst
So here, I was allowing everyone to pull on the gates of my heart. Here, I was allowing the pain of being alone scream over what God was speaking over my life. How many times have you allowed other people to scream over your life?
The nest step for me dealing with rejection, I had to learn what my identity was. I had to understand what words have I written over my heart. How have I identified myself as... Unwanted. Unloved. Unimportant.... The list can go on and on.
"God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved." Colossians 3:12
God has chosen me, and he LOVES me. So, I can not allow my circumstances to be tied to my identity because that is not who I am.. I am DEARLY LOVED.
"I feel treasured when complimented but tormented when criticized" - Lysa Terkeurst
We are God's children, he loves us so much that he sent his only son to die as our substitute. Therefore, I had to surrender my seat at the throne of my life and allow God to take complete control of my life. I had to say "God, I'm Yours!"
Lysa explains three core questions to having an intimacy-based identity. I won't go into detail because I really want you to read the book, but I want to throw these questions out to you for you to think about.
1. Is God good?
2. Is God good to me?
3. Do I trust God to be God?
Once you really understand these questions you, like I do, will sense a new life taking root and more stable identity taking place.
"We are not necessarily doubting that God will do the best for us; we are wondering how painful the best will turn out to be" - C. S. Lewis
I can not tell you how many times I have been in a season knowing that God has the best plan for what I was going through but how hard it was for me to accept because how in pain I was, or how hard it was for me to trust in that moment that it would turn around. However, God has the perfect plan. That is why I had to stop, deal with the problem, and lean not on my own understanding.
I had to deal with the fact that people would walk out my life, that my dad was not coming back and he would never be a father to me, that my "friends" would walk away from me. That there would be times when I felt lonely, but God was before and after all of that. He would never leave me.
I WAS LOVED. I WAS A CHILD OF A KING. WHAT CAN THE WORLD DO TO ME?
"God, I want Your truth to be the loudest voice in my life. Correct me. Comfort me. Come closer still. And I will trust. God, You are good at being GOD." - Lysa Terkeurst
