KEY SCRIPTURE Acts 16:25-34 "He said unto them, But whom say ye that I am? Peter answering said, The Christ of God. And he straitly charged them, and commanded them to tell no man that thing; Saying, The Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders and chief priests and scribes,..."
APPLICATION
Rejection is a powerful emotional player in how we think and act. Despite our feelings often being misguided, it nevertheless has its impact.
However, we can see from our scripture that the rejection from some people was irrelevant to Jesus, and we should take note of that. Being rejected hurts, and we should try our best to mend whatever has happened. If we can't, we leave those issues with the Lord. But there are some, like the elders and chief priests and scribes of Jesus' day, whose rejection we can take with a grain of salt. They shouldn't have any impact on our emotions.
Do you think Jesus cared whether they rejected Him? I don't think so. He knew from Isaiah 53 that He was to be rejected by many, so that foreknowledge was soothing when the time came. But being rejected by those thieves of the Kingdom wouldn't have worried Him in the slightest.
There are people in our lives who reject us, but are they all worth getting emotional about? As Christians, we will be rejected by many people as soon as we mention Christ. These times will come, and it's important to prepare for them. Jesus warns us in Luke 12:51, that what will come upon us is the opposite of what we want. "Suppose ye that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you, Nay; but rather division:" We are called to seek peace with every person, "If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men." (Romans 12:18) but sometimes it isn't possible, and we get rejected by those whom we love and thought were deep friends or family members.
What supported Jesus during His execution was the Cross of separation. The spirits of some people will not only dislike our conversations about the Lord but will hate us. To counter this, we must walk in inner peace as did our Saviour, and look to Him in times of rejection to see what He would have done. Hebrews 12:2 encouraged us, "Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God."
We are so fortunate to have a Saviour who has walked before us in the understanding of all our emotional states. Let's strengthen ourselves and march forward in love.
PRAYER Dear Lord, thank you for Jesus, and for the difficult way in which he had to walk. It gives me great strength in times when I suffer rejection. Please caution me if I ever cause someone else to feel the same.
Photo by Viktor Talashuk
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