He came to His own and His own did not receive Him.
John 1:11
One of the hardest lessons in life to learn is how to process the pain of rejection. Yet, as disciples of Christ, destined to partake of his sufferings, we will find time and opportunity to meet this. There will be a test. Love is unproven without the pain of suffering. Our love for the Father and His word will remain theory until it is challenged through the dynamics of our relationships. Jesus said, if you love me you will keep my commandments. His one new commandment that fulfilled the law was love, love even as I have loved you.
The bible tells us Jesus was a man of sorrow, acquainted with grief and for those who choose a narrow path and desire to know the love of God we will find our lives shaped by the pain and sorrows that inevitably come with relationships.
It is the sorrow and grief we’ve all experienced that drives our humanity to withdraw and guard self. When the word tells us to guard our hearts, this is not an instruction to put the walls up, lock the door and turn out the lights, but rather to watch for anything that works division and separation. Just as Adam was set in the garden to keep out the evil one, we too, guard our hearts to keep the seeds of rejection from taking root and keep them (our hearts) in the love of God.
As sure as we breathe rejection, betrayal, wounds, sorrow and grief follow and the only place we will find deliverance is in joining Jesus at the cross.
I found myself in prayer the other morning dealing with thoughts and emotions of self righteousness over my pain. The Holy Spirit said, nail it to the cross. I wasn’t quite ready to stop nursing it, yet right or wrong it had to die to end it’s power. “Sin lies at the door and it’s desire is for you, but you must master it.” As I remember Jesus as the son of man, I am able to minimize my pain by considering him who endured such hostility. This enables me to face my own fears and resist the temptation to protect myself.
There’s a wide path we can take but it does lead to destruction. The funny thing about rejection ~ you think you’ve got it dealt with until you have to interact with the human who is causing you the pain. Where there is no genuine care and love there has been no healing. The danger in all this is finding your heart in a place of unforgivenness, assuming that the pain you are experiening was intentionally inflicted. The Spirit is willing but the flesh weak, requiring the help of the Holy Spirit to overcome temptation. He is the only one that can help us forgive and move on.
At some point, as disciples of Christ, we are going to have to operate by the Spirit, and through the Spirit obey the word and move on. Love covers the multitude of sins and always chooses to believe the best of others.
The question can not be the righteness or wrongness of a particual event but the ability I am given to love when wronged. Jesus loved his own to the end. Again, from Isaiah 53, Jesus was a man despised, rejected and acquainted with sorrows and grief, yet he moved with compassion, freely poured out his life and loved to the end. As His disciples, we are called to share, not only in his sufferings being conformed unto his death, but in the power of a resurrected life. We can do all things through Christ who strengthens us.