I‘ve talked with lots of pastors who feel like failures. Most stuff their feelings of shame and rejection and rarely talk about it, even to their spouse. The shame they feel is too great.
Like the pastor I know who worked very hard on a sermon only to hear one of the tribal chiefs of the church say after the sermon, “Didn’t have much for us this morning did you pastor?” Now how in the world are you supposed to respond to that? “Aah, thank you very much. Please pass the ketchup.” Geesh…
It’s so easy to feel like a failure, isn’t it? Especially when someone rejects us — or at least we feel rejected — it is tempting to fight (which a few people do) or to flee (which a lot of people do). Or to freeze. That one probably defines me. I’m one of those people who can freeze and go to the land of numb, even in the midst of a “interesting” conversation or in a crowded church service.
Jesus felt rejection. “He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.” (John 1:11). What emotion do you think that elicited? Or “Those who passed by hurled insults at him.” (Mark 15:29). Imagine the emotions felt then?
When we face rejection and failure, and all of us do, instead of retaliating and attempting to take revenge or to take justice into our own hands, or to freeze and go numb, how about asking God to give us the faith and courage to trust Him in the midst of the conflict in which we find ourselves?
The word for that kind of trust? Yield.
What do you generally do when you see a yellow yield sign? You slow down. You acknowledge that someone has the right-of-way.
Maybe you need to put the brakes on your life today and say, “God, you can have the right-of-way in my life.”
Imagine what might happen if instead of fighting, fleeing or freezing you choose to yield to your heavenly Father?
Hmmm… What do you think of trying that?
I hope you will find your Father in heaven beginning to move you from a place of rejection and shame to a place of honor.
Whatever failure you experienced when you failed to live up to some standard (whatever and whose ever that standard may have been), God did not and does not reject you.
No, we are not slaves (“I am nothing.”)
Yes, we are princes and princesses (“I am everything.”)
Better yet, our Father is everything and He gives us our value and worth.
May you feel the overwhelming love of Jesus today where …
* We have nothing to hide…
* We have nothing to lose…
* We have nothing to prove…
donfollis.com 