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04 July 2020 - 2 Samuel 15: 16-37

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04 July 2020 - 2 Samuel 15: 16-37

I cannot even imagine the devastation David must have felt to be leaving his home and country again.  And the circumstances – his own son Absalom and many people turned against him.  This was a new low for David.   

Whether through our own actions, or injustices against us, rejection is a hard thing to bear.  David bore this exile in humility.  But what about us?  We can carry an attitude of rejection, unaware, our entire lives.  Those forgotten hurts from the past can be the reasons for today’s defensive walls, supposedly protecting us from more pain; or filters causing us to misinterpret people’s intentions, making us wary or untrusting; or a weight of frustration, that we aren’t recognised for our value and talents or contributions, leading us to be angry and argumentative.  The attitude of rejection becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. 

Ask God to show you what your heart is really like.  Stop to listen to the self-talk that goes through your head.  What are you telling yourself?  When you feel a negative reaction to something, stop, clarify and articulate what exactly is the message you are feeding on.  Because what is in your heart will eventually come out of your mouth (Matt 15:18).  And what proceeds from the mouth brings life or death (Prov 18:21).  What is really in your heart is what you will live by, and God wants us to live by His truth.

I myself realised I had a tendency to be untrusting of people’s intentions!  Where did that come from?  Asking God, a memory floated to the surface.  When I was ten, I was eating my lunch on the steps at school by the field.  The cool guy was walking past and called something to me but I didn’t catch it, so I asked him to repeat.  I later found out he said hello, but with my bad hearing I didn’t hear it.  But what I DID hear him reply was: “You deaf cow!”  Ouch!  Sometimes people would be embarrassed about having to repeat, but yeah.  As an insecure kid that was a whammy!  I was so humiliated.  So what to do?  Thank God for revealing this!  Forgive the person.  Ask for forgiveness for allowing that attitude to come in and ask God to break it off completely.  Ask God to reveal anything else He wants to say about that situation. 

Breaking free of rejection is a process.  God will reveal different things at different times, but it all has to start with humility, like David showed.  Sometimes what God wants to show us comes through another person, and requires us to be humble to receive what is being said.  God is willing to pick us up at any stage of the journey.  He is faithful and gives us opportunities to be transformed, but we have a choice as to whether we remain in our brokenness or allow Him to transform us.

Take some time to worship and thank Him for His goodness to us!  The lyrics are on the videos.

He Knows my name   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7owFiihXgg

Waymaker   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJCV_2H9xD0


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