Monday the 19th

1 Peter 2:4

 

⁴As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him.

 

Rejected by men…... We typically all feel rejected at some point. We are found to be less than desirable, and it tears us up. We seek entrance into a group, look for the acceptance of our peers, or try to excel in areas where acceptance is crucial. Time and time again we come up short. We are not allowed access or we are just outright rejected. Take heart, there is no need for resentment, or to feel less than others. The race we run is not a race between us and the world. It is a race to reach the Lord, and guess what? He has chosen you already, you were chosen before you drew your first breath. To the Lord you are everything you need to be, and you already have everything you need for the journey. This rejection by the world is to be expected. It serves a two-fold purpose. First it serves to remind us that we work on the Lord’s timetable, not ours. A rejection should not force our eyes to the ground in despair; it should force our eyes upward to the Lord. If we have been rejected how could it not be part of God’s plan for us? We should continue our march, praising God, and looking for the opportunity that He wants us to seize. We might have thought we knew where we were supposed to go, but rejection serves as a reminder that God has other plans for us. The second thing rejection by the world does for us is it reminds us to turn to the Lord for guidance. Each and every one of us in precious to him, there is not one of us whom God does not love. It is not the approval of the world that we require; it is the Love of God that we desire. Why worry about who has rejected you, why waste time looking for a way to win worldly approval? Look to the Lord, draw closer to him, and you will see his will more clearly. You will see that God will show you the way, but you have to look, you have to listen, and you will have to be rejected. Rejection by the world is nothing more than a reminder of the acceptance by the Lord. Run the race for the glory of God, not the glory of men. We will all go to our graves, but it will be the ones who have been rejected by the world, and accepted by The Lord that will rise again in glory. I would rather be rejected thousands of times here on earth, so that I might be accepted one time in the afterlife.

 

 

Peace,

Brian