Dealing With Rejection
It is a normal human experience to feel rejection.  There isn't a single person who has not felt the soul-piercing pain of feeling separated, cut off, unaccepted, unloved, and unwanted by important people in their lives.

Elsie experienced the very painful rejection of an only parent.  She also had to endure rejection from her aunts and uncles,  grandparents, and her teacher.  How could Elsie maintain such a purity of heart and cheerful disposition when she received very little love and affirmation from her family?  She must have found a key to inner joy and happiness that we can also use when we are feeling rejected.

EVEN JESUS WAS REJECTED

It is very important to remember that even Jesus-the Son of God Himself-suffered extreme rejection.  His own brothers rejected him.  The religious leaders of the time rejected Him.  Many of the multitudes that He taught and ministered to rejected him.  Even some of his closest friends, his disciples, rejected Him and fled from Him at His greatest hour of need when He was being arrested.  Jesus knows very well the suffering and pain of rejection. Is. 53:3 says, "He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces, he was despised, and we esteemed him not."

Hebrews 4: l5 says that Jesus can sympathize with our weaknesses and struggles because He also has been tempted and tried in all things as we are, yet was without sin. This is a great comfort to us in our afflictions.  Jesus understands how much it hurts to be rejected.  But He overcame rejection without sinning, and with the help of His Holy Spirit, we too can have victory over rejection.

HOW TO OVERCOME REJECTION

If rejection is such a common affliction, how then do we deal with rejection in a godly way when it comes-because it will come!  Rejection can bring intense emotional suffering and can prevent us from becoming the complete, healthy person God wants us to be if we don't know how to handle it in the right way.  Let's look at what the Bible says.  Remember that the Bible is God's handbook. In it we find His wisdom for living and His unfailing promises to us.  Elsie read the Bible constantly and took great comfort in the promises she found there.
WHAT PROMISES DID ELSIE RELY ON TO HELP HER DEAL WITH REJECTION?
(YOU CAN RELY ON THEM TOO!)

 PROMISE #1: GOD LOVED HER AND ACCEPTED HER

Elsie knew that she was valuable to God and you are valuable to God too. In fact, the Bible calls you (in Deut. 7:6) God's "treasured possession!" It says that He loves you and that He chose you, which means that He hand-picked you to be His (1 Pe. 2:9). God loves you and accepts you for who you are. Is. 41:9 says, "I have chosen you and not rejected you."

Do you know that in Matthew l0:29, it says that God so loves and watches over His creation that not even a sparrow falls to the ground without His knowing it? How much more valuable are you to Him than a sparrow?! God's Word tells us that even the hairs on your head are numbered!  Now think about that for a minute.  God cares so much about you that He knows exactly how many hairs there are on your head! Wow!

Elsie's self worth did not come from what people thought about her.  She knew that God loved her, accepted her, and valued her.  That was the source of Elsie's self-image. It was God's image of her that mattered, and it should be what God thinks of you that matters too!

PROMISE #2: GOD WOULD NEVER LEAVE HER

Psalm l39 is a Psalm well worth meditating on.  In it the psalmist describes how intimately God is acquainted with us.  He knows our every thought before we speak it.  He knows every move we make.  He has numbered our days and recorded them in His book before one of them even comes to pass.  The psalmist asks, "Where can I flee from you presence, God?"  He tries to come up with a situation where He could hide and God could not find him.  He ends up concluding that there is no place in heaven or on earth where God's presence would not go with him.  Hebrews l3:5 says, "I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you." Elsie knew that God would never desert or forsake her, and you can trust that God will never desert or forsake you.

PROMISE #3: NOTHING COULD SEPARATE HER FROM GOD'S LOVE

Another wonderful promise is found in Romans 8: 38-39 where it is emphatically stated that nothing can separate us from God's love.  Here is the list:  "Neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

Elsie's joy was rooted in knowing that God was always with her, that He loved her, and that nothing and no one could ever separate her from the love of God.  God would always love and accept her, regardless if others did.  This was her anchor in the midst of her trials.  Elsie knew the love and comforting presence of her Heavenly Father and her Beloved Savior, Jesus. When she felt rejected, she would run to the privacy of her room and pour out her heart to God.  She took great comfort in knowing that Jesus understood exactly how she felt and was sharing her pain with her, and that no matter what, His love for her was firmly and permanently established. You can take comfort in these things too.



WHAT WE HAVE LEARNED FROM GOD'S WORD

God loves you. He will never leave you, desert you, abandon you, forsake you, or reject you.  He is forever with you. He is a faithful friend who will love you always-no matter what you do, no matter what you look like, no matter how you feel.  His love is perfect towards you.  God does not treat you like man does.  Man's love is imperfect and can fail.  Your friends and family can reject you and disappoint you but God cannot.  He is perfect and His love is perfect and never fails.

BELIEVING THE TRUTH

When you are rejected, you are faced with a choice.  You can choose to believe what God has said to you and about you, or you can choose to believe the rejection, which will probably lead you to harden your heart and reject the people who have rejected you.
Then you will suffer the pain, harm and despair that comes because you did not let God help you properly handle the pain of rejection.

The only way you can ward off the fiery darts of rejection from people is to believe, and to know that you know that you know, that God loves you perfectly and will never, never, reject you or forsake you!  If you are rooted in this truth, then you will be able to withstand the most severe of rejections.

Psalm 118:6 says, "The Lord is for me; I will not fear; what can man do to me?"  That is the secret.  It is the key which Elsie found and it gave her victory, perfect peace, and even joy right in the midst of rejection. You must be grounded in the truth of God's Word and you must believe it with all your heart. Then when people say things or do things that hurt you, or when your family and friends reject you and fail you, you will not be shaken because you will know how perfectly loved and accepted you are by the Lord. God Himself will help you bear the rejection.  In Is. 41:10, He says, "So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand."

IT'S ALL IN HOW YOU LOOK AT IT

It is important to realize that sometimes we may think people are rejecting us and they really aren't.  They may be acting the way they are because they are afraid and insecure or hurting themselves.  Don't be so quick to think of yourself, but try to get an understanding of why this person acted the way he or she did.  You may begin to see a frightened, lonely person instead of a mean, thoughtless person. Often our feelings of rejection come from our own insecurities and fears.  So be careful that you aren't getting caught in self-pity and try to see things from a different angle.

Remember, it helps to understand that people will do unkind and ugly things to us because they are actually hurting inside themselves and haven't learned the right way to deal with their pain, so they take it out on others.  Seeing them this way will keep your heart soft with compassion and free from bitterness, which is a deadly poison.

FORGIVE THEM

Another extremely important secret that Elsie understood was forgiveness.  Elsie learned from the teachings of Jesus to forgive those who rejected her.  Holding onto the pain and anger will cause incredible emotional and physical damage.  It will cause your heart to harden and it will damage your soul.  Elsie had to forgive those who were unkind and rejected her.  But this ability to forgive kept her tender-hearted and allowed her to maintain a sweet disposition.

Elsie determined to practice Col. 3:12-14, her favorite verse, which says, "Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity."

STRONGER BECAUSE OF IT

In everything bad that happens to us, we have a choice.  We can choose to get angry and resentful, turn inward and think of ourselves and our wounds, which will lead to increased pain, anger, bitterness, and destruction.  Or we can choose to look at Jesus, not ourselves, and identify with His sufferings and let Him heal and strengthen us through our trial. You can use the rejection as an opportunity to forgive and show the mercy and love of God to those who have rejected you. You may even be able to rejoice in your sufferings when you see how God is using them  to make you a stronger person.  Romans 8: 28 gives us another powerful promise.  "And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose."

Finally, here is another powerful promise from the Word of God to remember in your times of rejection.  It is a verse that Elsie would surely have memorized:

"If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even 'sinners' love those who love them. And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even 'sinners' do that. And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even 'sinners' lend to 'sinners,' expecting to be repaid in full. But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful." (Lk. 6:32-36)