
To let you know personally, I USED to struggle with rejection. I also USED to struggle with PEOPLE PLEASING. But in the last 3 months I went through a season where I felt desperately alone. I went through that once before, but the body of Christ was there to pick me up, so I got through that one easily. This time however the body was not there. I was hurt, devastated, confused and really thought I felt rejection. I got stubborn, I got mad, I got angry, I was confused, and I didn't want to write about it. Because really "who cares". If I would have wrote about it, I would have really said some hurtful things to people I really loved.
Yesterday I listened to a lesson on people pleasing. I thought I was really going to go home crying and upset, because I knew that it was an area in my life that I had been sick with for 40 years. Ironically there is a woman in the Bible that had a sickness for 40 years and she also decided that she was sick and fed up and if she could just touch the hem of Jesus she would be healed. Since I didn't have the church body to lift me up, I was going to do the same. What I realized, however, was that during this season I had lost the desire to be a "people pleaser". I had lost the desire to worry about rejection or approval of others. Since the people I had trusted the most weren't there, I had to figure out how to do it between just me and God. I suppose since I got through the baby lesson years ago with the support of my friends, perhaps I had gotten to an age in Christ where I had to walk this tightrope alone with God. Interesting enough it was just what I needed to overcome what I feared most. What I realized is that I did not need to lose my "LOVE OF PEOPLE" when I let go of the fear of rejection and pleasing people.
Then this morning as I was scrolling through my facebook friend’s posts, I come across this post:
"Lately I have been keeping these thoughts to myself, which normally I don't. I wouldn't say I'm entertaining them in anyway, but I feel guilty, like I'm hiding something. Or not being honest. So maybe that's what this post is all about, puttin it out there, releasing it... Sharing my battle, cuz this journey isn't always goin to be easy. Somedays it IS a battle. I couldn't do it without my higher power tho... He has my back, & I believe that with all my heart. I know he won't put me in danger. He's done an amazing job so far of weeding out the toxic people who were in my life & has protected me from new ones tryin to get it. I love Him for that."
I suppose since I learned the "people pleasing lesson" my heart was open to a new lesson in this post. I was instantly brought to the scriptures: Ephesians 5:13; 1 Corinthians 4:5; and Luke 8:17. Please open your Bible's and read them. What it says in a nut shell is that it's important to bring the darkness into the light. Not because God wants you to look like a vulnerable fool so everyone on Facebook can criticize and judge you and talk about you the next day at coffee, but because as my friend shared, if you put it out there, you are releasing it to God so that you are able to be free. Some struggle with a fear of failing in front of others, but if we are failing inside of ourselves in the darkness where Satan plays the best, we are failing an opportunity to heal. John 12:43 says, in a nutshell, that certain people loved the approval of man more than the approval of God. We don't want to be like that. We want to be new creations, healed, delivered, saved, redeemed, and made whole.
Have a great day friends!