Rejection is universal. It doesn’t seem to matter where you live, how you were raised, or any other factor. Rejection often happens daily in some form. It seems that no one is exempt from this emotionally painful assault. 

Yet there is an essential truth that all believers can stand in. We have God’s stamp of approval. Isaiah 53:3 says, “He is despised and rejected by men…” He was rejected for us. His death changed our identity designations. Chosen. Predestined to adoption. Accepted in the Beloved. Redeemed. Forgiven. Predestined to God’s will. Sealed.

Let me backup these descriptions with the Scriptures. Ephesians 1:4 says, “Just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love.”

Verse 5 says, “Having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will.”

Verse 6 says, “To the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.”

Verse 7 says, “In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace.”

Verse 11 says, “…being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will.”

Verse 13 says, “In Him you also trusted after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise.”

The ideology of our times wants to negate the values that God set His stamp of approval on each one of us. Scripture is full of truth that will keep us from falling into error. Our part is to read His word for understanding, observe it so that we can apply it personally, memorize it so that it is hidden in our heart, and speak truth to ourselves when faced with our enemy’s tantalizing temptations to own our rejections.

Instead of receiving the lying fiery darts, we need to resist them by proclaiming who we are IN Christ. Colossians 3:3 says, “For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.” Genesis 1:26 says that we are made in the image of God. 2 Peter 1:3 says that we have received ALL things that pertain to life and godliness. We must brand these truths in our heart to give us inner strength in the face of any kind of rejection. We are accepted  by the only One that matters!

Ephesians 4:23 Amplified says, “And be constantly renewed in the spirit of your mind (having a fresh mental and spiritual attitude).” We cannot be idle, letting our mind wander into fleshly indulgences.

We must stay our thoughts on the Lord. Inner peace is the opposite of inner distress, turmoil, anguish of spirit, doubt, fear, and unbelief. Isaiah 26:3 says, “You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You.”

This verse has two conditions. We must keep our focus on the Lord instead of our circumstances. It requires trust or relying totally on Him and no other fleshly means which cannot profit.

1 Samuel 12:21 says, “And do not turn aside; for then you would go after empty things which cannot profit or deliver, for they are nothing.” Hosea 10:13 says, “…You have eaten the fruit of lies, because you trusted in your own way…”

The enemy will use our distress to plunder us through his lies. The Lord uses our distress to increase His real estate in our heart. Psalm 118:5 says, “I called on the Lord in distress; the Lord answered me and set me in a broad place.”

Psalm 18:18-20 anchored my heart when I had another brain injury in January 2017. It says of the enemy, “They confronted me in the day of my calamity, but the Lord was my support. He also brought me out into a broad place; He delivered me because He delighted in me.”

Dwelling in His Presence in the midst of the storm is the broadest place we can be—emotionally, physically, and spiritually. Intimate communion knows no barriers. Read this first verse from a new song called Extravagant Oil Of Joy.

I lift my unveiled face to gaze into Your face. Face to face I behold You as You behold me. No veil separates us. No fear of being known. We have intimate communion. Our hearts are knit as one.

Here is verse from a new song called Song of the Altar. In the midst of adversity when trouble surrounds me. I come into Your presence and I build an altar. I remember how You met me time and time again and I bow in worship.

Lifting our heart up in worship sets us in a broad place. We rise above the distress into His glory. Nothing limits us. There are no barriers that can keep us from Him. He is Present within us. We are breathing in His Presence every second. We praise Him with His breath within us because He is worthy.

Distress Default

I had read Exodus 6 and 7. The Holy Spirit took me back to camp on Exodus 6:9. Moses had just told the children of Israel that God was going to bring them out of their distress-filled circumstances. In verse 6 he reiterated God’s words, “…I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great judgments.”

Why couldn’t they grasp hold of God’s promises when Moses told them? Verse 9 says, “…but they did not heed Moses, because of anguish of spirit and cruel bondage.” The Hebrew for anguish meant impatience, or shortness. It conveyed several meanings for spirit. One is the mind, another is the seat of emotions such as anger, or dispositions such as troubled, bitter, and discontented.

Let me take you back to what had happened. Before Moses came they had Egyptian taskmasters over them to afflict them with their burdens. Exodus 1:13 says, “…all their service in which they made them serve was in rigor..” Exodus 2:23 says, “…the children of Israel groaned because of their bondage…” God heard their cry and sent Moses.

After Moses came, Pharaoh gave a harsh command. He deduced that because they wanted to go into the wilderness and worship their God, they were resting from their labors and idle. He gave the edict that they were no longer to be given straw. They had to go out and gather stubble. Yet, the quota of bricks was not reduced.

When we are distressed in our heart, we are tempted to default to unbelief. Our flesh rises up to protest through self-pity, self-focus, impatience, or any number of emotional fillers to deflect the pain.

The pain is present, but the promises seem too far away. When we are emotionally hurting, spoken truth hits the inner heart barriers of unbelief. The desire for immediate relief kicks in. I call it the dark night of the soul.

Think of the caterpillar inside the cocoon. It is dark. There is no relief from the transformation that is taking place. The caterpillar had to die to ‘self’ to make room for the butterfly. The caterpillar melts, and God forms the butterfly from its liquid.

The Lord uses our hard trials as His tool to transform our character. Ephesians 4:22-23 says, “That you put off, concerning your former conduct…” That is what the caterpillar has to do.. Its cocoon days abruptly stop the enjoyment of fresh leaves.  Ah, but the butterfly drinks life-giving nectar“…and be renewed in the spirit of your mind.”

In my book, “Victorious Living: more than a conqueror,” chapter seven is entitled, “Observing Your Life.” What do folks see when they observe your life? All that we do visually and behind doors is observed by others. 

What we think and what we do are intricately connected. They spill out like water being poured from a pitcher. All words come from thoughts. Though our thoughts are private, the fruit of those thoughts can be observed through our actions.

I was grocery shopping this morning. There was a customer two ahead of me waiting for the bagger to finish. The words coming out of their mouth, and the expressions on their face revealed the fruit of an angry inner dialogue.

David had a wise prayer that needs to be hidden in our hearts  as well. Psalm 19:14 says,  “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O  Lord, my strength and my Redeemer.”

Psalm 107:2 says, “Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom He has redeemed from the hand of the enemy…” Verse  20 says, “He sent His word and healed  them, and delivered them from their destructions.”

Is your life a testimony of being redeemed? David said in Psalm 40:2-3 that, “He also brought me up out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay…He has put a new song in my mouth—praise to our God; many will see it and fear, and will trust in the Lord.”

Psalm 104:33-34 says, ”I will sing to the Lord as long as I live; I will sing praise to my God while I have my being. May my meditation be sweet to Him; I will be glad in the Lord.” I want to draw our attention to the three ‘I will’s’ because that is key.

Saying, ‘I will’ sets our heart in the right direction. Two words that declare purpose and intention. We can take our example from a man’s words in the midst of a deep trial. Habakkuk 3:18 says, “Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation.”

What do others observe as you go through your hard trials? Here is our mandate for giving preference to our intent with ‘I will’ from Hebrews 13:15. It says, “Therefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God,  that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name.”

When I first woke up I just laid in bed and worshiped the Lord in my heart. I was thanking Him for how He has created our bodies to function. I have been watching a video about our circadian rhythm. I was standing in awe of His indescribable brilliance.

Each of you reading this can say the same thing. Though our circumstances are multi varied, there is a common denominator. God is truly in the center of our lives. I wrote in my journal.

‘Every aspect of my life has You as the center. My conception, womb time, all my growing up years to the present. All under Your protective hand. No one knows the details except You. I only know what You have told me or I remember. I stand in awe of You ~ expressionless ~ I am so Yours.’

I am aghast to think of the years I have wasted entertaining idols in my heart. Oh, they were not consciously set in place. They set themselves up as soon as I turned to my flesh in place of the Lord. Doing things in my own strength, or relying on something or someone, all equated to unbelief. Isaiah 5:13 says,  “Therefore my people have gone into captivity, because they have no knowledge…”

We are created to worship. Worship is built into our heart. The enemy will seek myriad ways to distract us, derail us, and keep us too busy to spend time with the Lord in intimate communion.

There is a righteous principle for worship found in John 4:23-24. It says, “…when  true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”

One way we do this is to glorify Him through our words. After meditating on yesterday’s verses I came to a conclusion. All of His creation glorifies Him. Half Dome in Yosemite is a tribute of its Creator. Does it have breath like you and I do? 

Psalm 19:1 says, “The heavens declare the glory  of God; and the firmament shows His  handiwork.” Ephesians  2:10 says that we are His workmanship. Psalm 8:3 says that the heavens are the work of His fingers.

He is glorified through testimony. The Grand Canyon testifies of a Creator. The rocks cry out ‘glory’ as they stand where He placed them. Let our lives cry out ‘glory’ as we serve Him and worship Him in spirit and in truth.

I’ve been meditating on this for several days. Isaiah 43:7 says, “Everyone who is called by My name, whom I have created for My glory, I have formed him, yes, I have made him.” The name of Jesus is a representation of all that He is at all times.

John 15:16 says, “You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you.”

Lets couple Isaiah 43:7 with Psalm 150:6  which says, “Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise the Lord!” Psalm 148:5 was referencing verses 2-4 which declared who was to praise Him: all His angels, all His hosts, sun, moon, stars, heavens of heavens, waters above the heavens. Verses 7-12 have more. Here are a few: great sea creatures, all the depths, fire, hail, snow, clouds, and fruitful trees.

Verse 5 says, “Let them praise the name of the Lord, for He commanded and they were created.” Verse 13 says, “Let them praise the name of the Lord, for His name alone is exalted; His glory  is above the earth and heaven.”

Moses asked to see God’s glory. He was denied. Read this with me. In Exodus 14:4 God’s declaration regarding Pharaoh was, “…I will gain honor over Pharaoh and over all his army, that the Egyptians may know that I am the Lord…” The Amplified says, “…I  will gain honor and glory…”

All these verses have been percolating in my heart. What does it all mean when we add Luke 19:40? Jesus declared that if His disciples didn’t praise Him the rocks would. Many years ago a friend gave me a small painted rock with the words, ‘I will praise You.’ It was a great reminder for me.

Everything that has breath is created to worship. Romans 1:20 says, “For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse.”

In verse 21 it says that those who did not glorify Him became futile in their thoughts. Verse 23 says, “And changed  the glory of the incorruptible God into an image…” We are created  to worship, and we will worship our heart idols IF we don’t worship the Lord.

That is a sobering thought. Ezekiel 14:1-7 was a discourse about heart idols. Fleshly heart idols usurp His place of worship. He alone is worthy. Anything that gains priority in our lives above Him has to be confessed as sin. More tomorrow.

Years ago I read Watchman Nee’s book, “The Release Of The Spirit.” It was about our outer man (soul) and our inner man (spirit). I vividly remember the illustration of a kernel of grain. I marveled at how intricately God made seeds to reproduce.

Genesis 1:29 says, “…I have given you every herb that yields seed…and every tree whose fruit yields seed…” There is a seed within the seed. Mark 4:27-28 says, “…the seed should sprout and grow…For the earth yields crops by itself: first the blade, then the head, after that the fruit in the head.”

What we sow we reap. We don’t reap it in the same season that it is sown in. We sow one seed, but we reap exponentially. Genesis 8:22 says, “While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest…shall not cease.”

Let’s apply this now as sowing to our flesh. Galatians 6:8 says, “…will of the flesh reap corruption…” The husk of our flesh is corrupt. Here is the truth of a believer. Romans 6:4 says, “Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of faith.”

Newness of faith is speaking about our inner man. We are given a charge in Ephesians 4:22 23 says, “That you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind.”

Here is what happened to that old man at salvation. Romans 6:6 says, “Knowing that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away  with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin.”

We do not have to sin!! Sin is a choice, because we are no longer enslaved to it. Verse 1 asks us this question, “…Shall we continue to sin that grace may abound?” I love Paul’s empathic statement in verse 2, “Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?”

When we read these verses, they reveal the hidden chaff. It is believing satan’s deception! He works through lies. He cannot tell the truth. When we are tempted to go away from Scripture’s commands and truth that keeps us free, we will fall into sin—pure and simple.

The one who is deceived does not know that they are deceived. They are hardened and their heart became calloused when they ignored the promptings of the Holy Spirit’s warnings. Hebrews 3:12 says, “Beware, brethren…” The writer is addressing everyone who has believed for salvation.

Verse 13 says, “…lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.” James 1:16 says, “Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren.” Galatians 6:7 says, “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.”

What is chaff? I like Job’s picturesque words in Job 21:18. It was speaking of the wicked and said, “They are like straw before the wind, and like chaff that a storm carries away.” Psalm 1:3 was written about those who meditate on God’s word. Verse 4 was the contrast. It says, “The ungodly are not so, but are like the chaff which the wind drives away.”

In Ruth 3:2 the word winnowing was used. It said of Boaz, “…he is winnowing barley tonight at the threshing floor.” Winnowing was the practice in those days of extracting  grain from the surrounding husk. 

The grain was tread upon by animals until the outer shell was broken. Then it was put into large tray-like baskets. It was tossed into the air where a breeze would catch the chaff and blow it away.

Chaff is lightweight and has no substance, yet it will keep planted grain from sprouting, It has to be broken first through death. Jesus was speaking about His own upcoming death in John 12:24. He said, “…unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain.”

Let’s tie this into His words regarding what it means to be an authentic follower of Jesus. Matthew 16:24-25 says, “…If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself…whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.” 

I want to describe our flesh as chaff. Anything fleshly is without substance, yet it can keep us from bearing harvest fruit that will glorify the Lord. Flesh exalts rather than denies.  John 6:63 says that our flesh profits nothing.

Anything that we do in our flesh is chaff and fits into the category of wood, hay, and stubble from 1 Corinthians 3:12. Verse 13 says that our works will be tested by fire. Matthew 3:12 says, “His winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor, and gather His wheat into the bar; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”

Cull means to select and remove. I sort my dry beans before I soak them. I cull the ones that are shriveled or blighted. As we systematically read God’s word, it powerfully culls our fleshly attitudes that blight our character. More on this tomorrow.

I am in the midst of writing a book that the Holy Spirit laid on my heart. It is called, “Overcoming Resentment: stop defiling bitterness in its tracks.” I thought I was done, but then He took me to a verse to ponder. 

It was already a memorized verse so I camped on it. I meditated on it, and it tested me. In Psalm 26:2 David wrote, “Examine me, O Lord, and prove me; try my mind and my heart.” As I continued to meditate, some old legalistic perception chaff began to burn away. I saw the verse in a fresh light. It became the fodder for part three of this new book.

There is so much to Joseph’s story. I encourage you to refresh your memory by reading Genesis 37, 39-50. I want to recap it through Psalm 105:16-19. God had sent a severe famine. Verse 17 says, “He sent a man before them—Joseph—who was sold as a slave.”

Verses 18-19 say, “They hurt his feet with fetters, he was laid in irons. Until the time that his word came to pass, the word of the Lord tested him.” He was 17 years old when he had the two dreams. Those dreams were fulfilled when he was 30.

How is the Lord testing your heart through His word? Malachi 3:2 says, “…He is like a refiner’s fire…He will sit as a refiner and a purifier of silver…purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer to the Lord an offering in righteousness.” Though this is speaking of Israel, we can make personal applications.

When I meditated on the verse, His refining fire was at work. Psalm 12:6 says, “The words of the Lord are pure words, like silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times.” God’s word is implanted, or embedded into our heart as we meditate.

Hebrews 4:12 says, “The word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” We do well to implant it, so His truth is deeply embedded to do His refining (examining, testing, purging) out the lies we have believed that still control our lives.

I was pondering the life of Joseph. There was nothing recorded in Scripture about his attitude. Think with me for a moment. He was loved by his father. According to his brothers he was given preferential treatment and they hated him because of it.

Genesis 37:4 says, “…they hated him and could not speak peaceably to him.” Then Joseph told them about his first dream. Verse 5 says that they hated him even more. Then he told his second dream to his brothers and his father. Verse 11 says that they envied him.

Hatred and envy are two very toxic negative emotions. Jacob sent Joseph to go look for his brothers and see how they were doing. Verses 19-20 recorded their hearts when they saw him coming to them from afar. They said, “…Look, this dreamer is coming! Come therefore, let us now kill him…”

They ended up selling Jospeh to some traders on their way to Egypt. They first stripped him of his many colored tunic. Then they dipped it in blood. When they showed it to their father, he immediately assumed that Joseph had been killed by a wild beast. They remained silent.

The traders sold Jacob to Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh. Note Genesis 39:2-3. says, “The Lord was with Joseph, and he was a successful man…And his master saw that the Lord was with him and that the Lord made  all he did to prosper in his hand.”

Though Joseph was a servant, his attitude exemplified the Lord. What a challenge to us in our adverse circumstances. Joseph was set up by Potiphar’s lying wife. When her husband heard her false accusations he became angry, and put him in the king’s prison.

Even that did not affect Joseph’s attitude. Verse 21 says, “But the Lord was with Joseph and showed him mercy, and He gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison.” The keeper then committed all the prisoners into Joseph’s hand.

Verse 23 is astounding. It says, “The keeper of the prison did not look into anything that was under Joseph’s authority, because the Lord was with him; and whatever he did, the Lord made it prosper.”

That is the promise we read in Psalm 1:2-3 when we delight in God’s word and meditate on it. Verse 3 says that we will be like a verdant tree, bearing  fruit, our leaves will not wither, and “…whatever he does shall prosper.” I believe Joseph was a meditator. More tomorrow.