"Love never fails."
1 Corinthians 13:8
What a powerful session! Even though I was totally wiped out from the weekend, I felt that tug of the Spirit to attend. Beth addressed rejection and how it affects our ability to love. She described rejection as someone testing and examining our 'qualifications' and then spitting us out. Ooh, does that not hurt? I don't know about you, but I have felt that sting, that humiliation, that shame, that betrayal. And the deeper you have loved, the deeper is that pain.She goes on to address the wounds of rejection that go deeper and last longer than other types of injuries. For instance, to avoid deep pain, we intentionally love in a 'shallow' way. While we are wounded, we often invite things into our lives that we would not have, if we were thinking 'rationally.' We usually think we can 'fix' those wounds in 2 ways: either recover what rejected it, or reject what rejected it (Revenge!). But, sadly, those never work.
Only God can heal those wounds of rejection. 1 Peter 2:4 says ..."As you come to Him, the living Stone--rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to Him--". Here we see the sovereignty and supremacy of our God in our lives if we are surrendered. I don't know about you, but that comforts me.
Beth says that He shuts a door so we won't accept something 'less' than what He planned for us, especially if we did not consult Him or wait for Him in the first place.
She also said that when we are rejected because of Him in us, He takes that quite personally and He takes care of that! She illustrated how all the love that you invested so freely that was reviled by that person was accepted by Christ. He holds it as precious.
When the session closed, our pastor invited all those who wanted to love deeply once again, to be healed of those wounds of rejection to come up to be prayed for. The altar was filled. I found my university pal there and we hugged. I could feel the agape love of God filling my heart.
Father, thank You for Your Spirit. Fill me with your love once again. Let that fact that I am chosen and precious to You pervade all that I do and say. Let the fact that those who hurt me are chosen and precious to You as well and enable me to see them and love them like You do. Let me love deeply and come alive with You again. I am totally unsatisfied with my 'shallow-love' lifestyle. Give me all that I need including Your wisdom to love fully and appropriately. In the awesome Name of Jesus, I pray, Amen.
3 comments:
Wow, I came by to thank you for your visit, but then your post blew me away! I needed this. Because I understand first-hand what it's like to intentionally love in a 'shallow' way, to avoid deep pain. My life story! Except Jesus changes all that, doesn't He?
Your comments bless me. (Thank you for praying for Rachel, too. I don't even know who she is, but thankful she dropped by). Pray, too, that I'll be able to live beyond myself more and more...in and through Christ.
Hugs,
Vicki
Sita,
It's so great to see how God's Spirit moves from one corner of the world to another, all in the same vein. His love is so amazing! I understand the desire to shy away from deep love, to avoid deep pain. But, something I have realized is that GOD is the protector of my heart. I can't protect my heart by building up walls. I have to trust my heart to God and love freely.
I have experieced rejection the way you put it. it is very hard to take and left deep wounds which took years to heal and sometimes still pinch me. If I was not a Christian i would have fallen apart
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