Rejection

“He was despised and rejected by mankind,

    a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.

Like one from whom people hide their faces

    he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.”

Isaiah 53:3

How do you protect yourself from rejection?

Some try to do it by how they dress, what they buy, where they eat or even by going to church.

What have these things got to do with rejection?

A fear of rejection can inordinately influence our decision making process causing us to dress a certain way, buy a particular product, eat what someone else approves of or even whether or not we attend church.

In so many ways peer pressure, at its root, is really all about rejection.

No one likes to be rejected.

That’s why we work so hard at avoiding it!

But everyone experiences rejection in their life.

Jesus did too.

He was rejected by many in His family and His home town.

He was rejected by His own people and is rejected by many to this very day.

So rejection, like offense, is not something we can prevent.

What we can do is change how it impacts us and what we do about it.

How do we prepare our hearts to be ready when rejection comes?

How do we respond to others when we are rejected?

How did Jesus handle rejection?

Let’s look at those questions and more over the next several days.