His Outstretched Hand

Isaiah 53:3a
He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and familiar with suffering.

Father God, You know rejection far better than I do. I ask You to touch me when I'm rejected (or when I feel rejected) and ease that pain. Pleasemake me sensitive to the times when I reject people. You know that I don't want to hurt others' feelings. Protect my words, body language, and attitude, that they may heal and not reject. Amen.

Yes there have been times that I have felt the pain of rejection...there are times that I still struggle with it...however I'll talk about that in a minute. I wanted to take a minute to process what the bible study for today talks about.

Jesus Himself experienced rejection. His own people who He came to save and teach were the very ones who nailed Him to the cross: "He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him" (John 1:11). How could we reject the very gift that God gave us? Such a precious gift He is and still there are those who do not believe in Him... How we have hurt our beautiful Savior by rejecting Him...

And to make that even worse, Jesus felt rejected by His own Father. When Jesus bore the sins of the world He felt deep, deep pain. He cried out to His Father "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" (Matthew 27:46). Yet, he finished his mission with love...love for His Father who sent him on that mission, and love for those of us who crucified Him...Us.

When Jesus suffered on the cross to save us and to pay for all of our sins, he also gave us a promise "Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you" (Hebrews 13:5). Jesus knows how we feel in our times of pain and suffering and he has given us His grace for our time of need and offers us His Strength to see us through. He will never leave us alone. We may be scorned or rejected by others, however God will always be there to comfort us and to offer us His Outstretched Hand. What a beautiful God we have to see us through our troubles...

I deal with feelings of rejection a lot from family...although I'm slowly letting that go with time. I won't say it doesn't hurt when I think about it. Then again, sometimes I think describing my family tree is hard.

I have my biological's mom's side of the family...they had issues with my Dad remarrying so soon after my Mom's death and I still to this day have a hard time talking about my life because they have no problem reminding me that my step-mom whom I call Mom isn't my Mom. I was Grandma's girl though and when she died, I really found myself putting more of a distance there. I tried for awhile to be close to them, but it only wound up hurting me more than it helped. I saw the way they treated me like I was the outsider. I never knew what to say to them, they'd have a get together or something would happen and I wouldn't be notified...it hurt. There are a few that I talk to occasionally, but other than seeing them at special holidays (usually Christmas Eve) I don't see them much.

I have my Dad's side of the family...his family is branched out in so many directions and is very confusing to me (his mom was married many times and to figure out who goes with who is very conufsing to me)...not to mention that they just live in a way that I wasn't raised in and they are always fighting with one another. I don't know them well really...other than a very select few. I try to visit when we go into GA though...I wouldn't say I have any close relationships with his side of the family though. The one aunt and cousins that I was close to, really fizzled out when my Mom and Dad divorced.

Then, I have my step-mom's side of the family...they're not a close family at all really. However, we were really close to the brother and his family that she had that was still in MI (everyone else is in FL). But, I still consider them all to be my family too.

Then, you have Andy's family....there are still some that although we've learned to get along there's still distances between us that are at times unsettling to think about. I still wouldn't say that I feel accepted by them all, but I've learned to deal with it. Anyway...I'll have to write more later...I've got some things to do and to deal with.