That Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love.-Ephesians 3:17 NKJ
When my wonderful, caring husband and I were dating because of insecurities and unhealed hurt from the past he rejected me several times. While in prayer about this, I told the Holy Spirit what I planned to tell him, “I’m going to tell him I never want to see him again. Get out of my life!” I thought the Holy Spirit was going to say, “Yeah, let him have it, because he hurt you!” He didn’t. In fact, he said, “Don’t do that. Don’t reject your friend. Tell him that he hurt you but he’s always welcome in your home.” I did what the Holy Spirit said and not what I planned.
The rest is history; we have been married nineteen years at the time of this writing. Praise God! Look at how this testimony lines up with the second book of Corinthians writer’s advice, “Now instead you ought to forgive and comfort him…I urge you, therefore, to reaffirm your love for him.”15
Our identity and self-worth should be rooted in Christ. It is a known fact that all things will change in this life. Even knowing this, our self-worth can become attached and dependent to our talents, natural abilities, our relationships or our possessions. These things will change through time but our Lord never changes.16
What you are rooted in decides the kind of fruit you bear. If you are rooted in acceptance and love, you are free to develop the good fruit of self-control, meekness, faithfulness, goodness, patience, peace, joy and love.
If you are rooted in rejection, abuse, guilt, poor self-image you will develop the bad fruit of depression, negative ness, lack of self-confidence, anger, hostility, controlling spirit, judgmentalism, hatred and self-pity.
The prophet Isaiah describes our Lord as one well-acquainted with humanity’s pains and sorrows. In fact, humanity did not appreciate His worth or have any esteem for him:
He was despised and rejected and forsaken by men, a Man of sorrows and pains, and acquainted with grief and sickness; and as one from Whom men hide their faces He was despised, and we did not appreciate His worth or have any esteem for Him. -Isaiah 53:3
So you might be asking, “What is rejection?” Rejection is anything that happens to us that makes us feel unloved, unwanted or unworthy. I don’t know anyone that enjoys rejection. We, often build walls and run away to avoid the pain of rejection.
We have a natural need for acceptance and love. God made us that way. I suppose that’s why we avoid it at high costs. Rejection will lose its sting (power to hurt) as we gain faith in who we are in Christ. The more we know in our spirit that God accepts us the less power Satan can gain over us by the spirit of rejection.
The truth is none of us can avoid rejection at some point in our life. From childhood to adulthood we will face rejection. If it’s not the school play that we desperately wanted to be a part of, it may be the cheerleading squad that thinks our best friend had just a little more enthusiasm.
How we learn to respond is a key factor. According to Joyce Meyers in her book The Root of Rejection, “Just a little rejection can cause a wound to the soul that will open a door. Through that open door, the devil can bring in a spirit of rejection that will rule a person’s life.”
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About Author
Earma Brown, author of W.O.W. Women of Worth! Becoming an Extraordinary Woman Using Ordinary Tools inspires women around the world to become women of destiny, purpose, and victory through speaking engagements, her books, and Bible studies. Sign up for her free ecolumn Destiny Notes at http://www.wowontheweb.com
For more information, also visit http://www.earmabrown.com
Earma Brown, twelve book Christian author and founder of WOW! Women Global inspires women around the world to become women of destiny, purpose, and victory through speaking engagements, her books, Bible curriculum and studies. She is author of the trilogy of Wow! Women books: Women of Worth, Women of Destiny and Women of Legacy, the Armorbearer Training Series, Prayer Fulfilled Life book set and Writing A Book God’s Way book and course. She currently lives in Arkansas.