Friday 18 March 2016

The have rejected Me

But the thing displeased Samuel when they said, “Give us a king to judge us.” So Samuel prayed to the Lord. And the Lord said to Samuel, “Heed the voice of the people in all that they say to you; for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected Me, that I should not reign over them. According to all the works which they have done since the day that I brought them up out of Egypt, even to this day—with which they have forsaken Me and served other gods—so they are doing to you also. – 1 Samuel 8.6-8

I hate rejection. I always have. When I was young was a terrified to ask a girl out on a date because I hated rejection so much. The bad thing is you would have thought I would have gotten used to it as often as it happened. I had the strangest girl is my class, she spent every weekend evening washing her hair!

Rejection always hurts. It hurts when family and friends reject us. It happens when we pour our hearts and our souls into people and they suddenly turn away and treat us like enemies. Rejection hurts, but it happens.

And Samuel faced rejection. He had done good job as their judge – but near the end of his life the people decided that they wanted a King.

It’s like ‘I poured my life into these people. I led them and directed them and worked for them and prayed for them and what do they do? They reject my way and demand a king. How can they do that to me?’

But God had a word for him.

‘They have not rejected you – they have rejected me.’

How many people have we loved and witnessed to and cared for and poured our lives to when something happens and all of a sudden they turn against us? We are hurt, or course.

Other times we share our faith and love people and they just never accept the good news of salvation and we feel like we have failed.

This isn’t like the rejection I mentioned at the start – that’s just part of life. But when we are rejected for the cause of Christ we need to heed God’s words to Samuel. They have not rejected us personally, but they have rejected God and His word. We can’t be discouraged or get down or feel rejected if we are rejected for His sake.

So we just keep loving and caring and meeting needs and being there as hard as it might be.

Who knows how God might work through our perseverance?

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