Scripture: Jeremiah 29:11
In this series we are talking about what to do when we experience rejection. We are considering what I have called the four R's: Remembering our Lord, Reclaiming one's call, Refocusing on the future, and Regaining God's strength.
On this program I want to talk particularly about the third R: Refocusing on the future.
GODLY WOMEN IN NEPAL
I have a ministerial colleague in the Asian nation of Nepal where Christian evangelization is illegal. I must not mention her name for security reasons. To be a believer in Nepal is by definition to experience rejection.
My colleague tells about convening a gathering of Christian women which was to take place high in the mountains away from the population center. Many from remote villages would have to walk for as many as ten hours through the mountains in order to get there. However, one week prior to the meeting, word came that severe persecution had broken out in the village where the meeting was to be held. Some women had been humiliated and beaten; one almost died.
What should they do about the convention in light of these events? After prayer, they decided to go ahead with the plans as made. Instead of concentrating on what had happened, they decided to focus on what God could do in the future. So, though it was a risky business, my colleague and eight companions boarded a bus for a five hour trip to the area near where the convention was to be held. En route, however, the bus broke down. Undeterred, they pressed on by riding in the back of a truck for two hours.
When they arrived at the end of the road where they would have to begin a journey by foot to the village where the meeting was to be held, they were met by a Christian brother who told them that things were so tense in the mountain village that they needed to return home. He told them threats were being received that they would be beaten and the chapel where they were to meet would be burned. But again after prayer, my colleague and her companions decided to press on. They agreed among themselves that they were prepared to face persecution and even ready to die. So they started walking through the darkness. After five hours, they reached the home of a believer where they rested for awhile. Early the next morning they climbed the mountain for another fifty minutes to reach the village where the conference was to be held. However, no one was there for fear of what would happen. But still with their eye on God's future, the nine women went from house to house urging them to come. Finally those who were hiding ventured out and the meeting began. It lasted for two days, miraculously without incident. Over 100 people were in attendance, including some men.
At the close of the meeting everyone was, of course, jubilant with gratitude for what had taken place during their time together. One man who had locked up his wife and daughters so that they could not attend stood in the shadows near the chapel listening to the services. His wife and daughters had escaped and were there. As he watched, he was transformed. At the last service, he, too, gave his testimony. In reference both to his earlier resistance to the meetings and to the miraculous happenings in them, he said, “I was just about to be left behind!”
A few weeks after the convention, the family which had been the instigators of all the trouble had some sickness. By God's grace, it was none other than the women of the church who went to them, prayed for them, cared for them and took them the medicines they needed. Love transformed that family.
My colleague says, "It is our prayer that one day this whole village will know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior."
At every point of rejection the nine women had focused on the future. That, my friend, is the secret for dealing with rejection whether it be in the mountain kingdom of Nepal or in the valleys of your own personal life. When you experience rejection, focus once again on God's future for you.
THE JEREMIAH 29:11 APPROACH
The most beautiful passage in the whole Bible about God's future for us is found in Jeremiah 29:11 where God instructs his people in Babylonian exile to focus again on the future. He urges them no longer to be satisfied living in exile. They had been in Babylon long enough. It was time to stop being rejects among the nations. It was time to focus again on the future. The scripture reads, "For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the LORD, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope. "2
It does not matter what kind of rejection you are experiencing, the God who spoke to the rejected people in Babylonian exile is the same God who is at work in your life now. He has a future with hope for you, too. He is not pleased for you simply to settle in the land of turmoil. He does not want you to smother in the heat of rejection. God wants you to get up from that destructive environment, and to cast your eyes on the horizons where there is a better future.
To use our story from Nepal as a metaphor, we could put it like this: when rejection comes our way, we need to get on the bus anyway, so to speak, and move on into God's future. And when the bus breaks down, we need to get into the back of a truck and move on. And when the truck gets to the end of the road and darkness has overtaken us, we need to keep walking. And when there is another mountain to climb, we need to climb it. And when we don't find what we thought we would find at the top of the mountain, let us not give up, but go from house to house, so to speak, in pursuit of God's future.
If we will focus and refocus on the future, things will happen which will surprise us. As in the case of the Nepalese women, they had all sorts of delightful surprises. The frightened faces of those hiding in their houses when the nine leaders arrived, in time turned into countenances of joy. That was one of the many divine surprises which awaited them in God's future. Another surprise was that "rejectees" in fear became evangels of hope. And another was that a church in hiding from their enemies became a church ministering to their enemies. And another surprise was that whereas once the village was a hot bed of evil, now it was a field white unto harvest for the cause of the gospel. Surprise after surprise awaited them in God's future.
We experience many kinds of rejection‑rejection in the home, rejection at work, rejection at church, rejection where we live, racial rejection, rejection because of how we might look. But regardless of the type of rejection we experience, when it happens, God wants us to focus again on the future. He helps us to think about what he can still accomplish in and through us in the days that lie ahead. God 'can bring about that which we, in our wildest imagination, had not thought possible. For instance, when the women of Nepal first heard about the severe persecution going on in the place where they were intending to have the convention, they did not even know the perpetrators. And yet, in the course of time, the church would win them through love. What if they had succumbed to the rejection? What if they had not boarded the bus? What if they had not pressed on with the trip even though it meant riding in the back of a truck? What if they had not taken the long night walk? What if they had not climbed the mountain? What if they had not pursued the frightened Christians in the village? If they had not done all this, it is unlikely that the village would have been so powerfully influenced by the gospel.
THREE PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS
God has something more he wants to accomplish in your life and mine. We cannot see what that might be. God does not give up; he continues working. That is one of the most inspirational things I know about God. He continues working even after we have given UP.
I have three practical suggestions for you:
First, take a step of faith beyond where you are. Do something, little though it may be, that moves you from where you are. Don't stay put. Get in the bus and go, so to speak. Do at least one little thing that will get you off dead center with your experience of rejection.
Second, put your mind at God's disposal and listen for what he has to say to you. If you are able to walk, take a walk and listen for God's voice regarding the future. If you can't walk, find some other way to be alone with God.
And third, ask God to give you an expectant heart and mind. Expectancy is a gift. To believe that God has a divine surprise in each and every day takes into account who the biblical God really is. He is the God on the horizons of life, calling us onward to new possibilities, never calling us backward to old hurts. If you find yourself being drawn backwards, you can be sure that it is not God. God calls us to move on, never to stay stuck in the quagmire of human rejection. To stay stuck in the quagmire of rejection leads to certain emotional and spiritual death.
In short, then, first, take a step of faith; second, listen to God; and third, live in expectancy.
God's grace will enable you to move beyond your rejection into God's acceptance, and to move from despair to hope. He will enable you to stop focusing on your experience of rejection and to begin focusing on God's gift of "a future with hope."
PRAYER
Let us pray:
Gracious Lord, I am sure there are people listening who experience human rejection. My earnest prayer is that by your grace they will come to experience your acceptance and hear afresh the divine words of Jeremiah 29:11, "For surely I know the plans I have for you ... plans for your welfare and notfor harm, to give you a future with hope." Mayitbe so, 0 Lord, for each of us whatever our circumstances. Inyour name we pray. Amen.
1. For this story, see Cheryl Johnson Barton, (ed.), Songs of Deliverance (Anderson: Missionary Board of the Church of God, 1955), p. 8.
2. New Revised Standard version used here and throughout.
Script 2564 (GWS)
February 18, 1996
SERIES: "WHEN YOU EXPERIENCE REJECTION"
3. Refocus on the Future
Scripture: Jeremiah 29:11
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