REJECTION! Have you ever dealt with it before? I have…Rejection can come in a number of different ways for various reasons. It can be difficult to deal with, however if it’s not dealt with correctly it can lead to other problems down the road. Today’s blog entry deals with handling rejection….
Before I go to deep into this, there are a couple of scriptures I want to list:
“Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.”
– Proverbs 3:5
“But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” - Matthew 6:33
I list these scriptures because I will be dealing with wants/desires we have as humans, and when dealing with something like this, I want to be clear that our focus should always be to seek God’s will over what we desire to do.
Ok, so here’s the scenario…You’re a very hard worker at your job. You have a positive attitude, complete your work tasks timely and effectively, and you also provide help to your co-workers on a regular basis. There is a particular promotion that you have desired to have for quite some time, and now you have reached the time of the year when you get to meet with your boss to discuss promotion opportunities. You have prayed about it, and thought things through, putting together a very good presentation of why you should be selected for the promotion. At the end of your presentation, you ask your boss if you can have the promotion, and he/she says they will get back with you. A few days later you find out that you did not get the promotion, on top of that you find out the individual who did get the promotion is a co-worker of yours that’s a big time slacker….
While the type of scenario mentioned above may not be the first thing that comes to your mind when you think of rejection, most people would be displeased if they found themselves in that equation playing the role of the hard worker. As mentioned earlier, rejection can come in a number of ways and rather than list out more examples/categories of rejection, I would like to focus on our reaction to not receiving what we desire. Feelings of anger, hurt, and resentment can try to bombard us as a result of us being “rejected” by an individual; but it’s important to realize that God is in control, and He knows what’s best for us. Instead of focusing on what other people have done to us, we should examine ourselves, and look at the things that we can improve upon.
If we are not careful, one isolated incident can cause us to have a victim mentality where we feel like everybody is against us. This can lead to a lot of complaining, and ultimately serve as a big distraction, taking our focus off of what we should be doing as Christians.
We should never allow being “rejected” by a person to cause us to lose our cool. Don’t try to retaliate, but rather rest in the knowledge that you have of knowing Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. “Surely He hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem Him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted.” - Isaiah 53:4 …No matter how rejected we may feel, remember that Jesus carried our sorrows.
Before I end this blog entry, I would like to revisit the fictional scenario of the hard worker mentioned earlier. The hard worker was very upset about not getting the promotion, and even wanted to protest, however instead of doing this, the worker gracefully congratulated the employee who got the promotion. The hard worker then found out that they also we’re being promoted, but for a much higher position than they had originally asked for. The worker was very excited, and happy about the new opportunity. Had the worker, made a scene and protested, the new promotion never would have happened.
No matter what we go through, it’s important to always put our trust in God.
“Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee, yea, I will help thee; yeah I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.”- Isaiah 41:10
Before I go to deep into this, there are a couple of scriptures I want to list:
“Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.”
– Proverbs 3:5
“But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” - Matthew 6:33
I list these scriptures because I will be dealing with wants/desires we have as humans, and when dealing with something like this, I want to be clear that our focus should always be to seek God’s will over what we desire to do.
Ok, so here’s the scenario…You’re a very hard worker at your job. You have a positive attitude, complete your work tasks timely and effectively, and you also provide help to your co-workers on a regular basis. There is a particular promotion that you have desired to have for quite some time, and now you have reached the time of the year when you get to meet with your boss to discuss promotion opportunities. You have prayed about it, and thought things through, putting together a very good presentation of why you should be selected for the promotion. At the end of your presentation, you ask your boss if you can have the promotion, and he/she says they will get back with you. A few days later you find out that you did not get the promotion, on top of that you find out the individual who did get the promotion is a co-worker of yours that’s a big time slacker….
While the type of scenario mentioned above may not be the first thing that comes to your mind when you think of rejection, most people would be displeased if they found themselves in that equation playing the role of the hard worker. As mentioned earlier, rejection can come in a number of ways and rather than list out more examples/categories of rejection, I would like to focus on our reaction to not receiving what we desire. Feelings of anger, hurt, and resentment can try to bombard us as a result of us being “rejected” by an individual; but it’s important to realize that God is in control, and He knows what’s best for us. Instead of focusing on what other people have done to us, we should examine ourselves, and look at the things that we can improve upon.
If we are not careful, one isolated incident can cause us to have a victim mentality where we feel like everybody is against us. This can lead to a lot of complaining, and ultimately serve as a big distraction, taking our focus off of what we should be doing as Christians.
We should never allow being “rejected” by a person to cause us to lose our cool. Don’t try to retaliate, but rather rest in the knowledge that you have of knowing Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. “Surely He hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem Him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted.” - Isaiah 53:4 …No matter how rejected we may feel, remember that Jesus carried our sorrows.
Before I end this blog entry, I would like to revisit the fictional scenario of the hard worker mentioned earlier. The hard worker was very upset about not getting the promotion, and even wanted to protest, however instead of doing this, the worker gracefully congratulated the employee who got the promotion. The hard worker then found out that they also we’re being promoted, but for a much higher position than they had originally asked for. The worker was very excited, and happy about the new opportunity. Had the worker, made a scene and protested, the new promotion never would have happened.
No matter what we go through, it’s important to always put our trust in God.
“Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee, yea, I will help thee; yeah I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.”- Isaiah 41:10