How can I overcome feelings of rejection?

But it is most instructive to notice that relief is experienced as soon as the burden of his complaint is laid down before the Lord. Exercised souls will understand this. They know that the heart is eased and strengthened the moment the sorrow is told out into the ear of God. (See Philippians 4:6-7.) It is so with David; for no sooner has he implored the God of his salvation not to forsake him, than he turns round to declare his unshaken trust in the Lord: "When my father and my mother forsake me, then the Lord will take me up." If all who are nearest and dearest (those upon whom he had the claim of the most intimate natural ties) should turn away from him, when thus utterly alone, the Lord would seize the opportunity of manifesting His favour. This is the Lord's way, as we see in the blind man in John's gospel. Cast out by all alike - in complete isolation - the Lord drew near, and revealed Himself to him as the Son of God. Blessed Lord! Thou lovest to comfort those who are cast down, and to display Thy love to those of Thine own, who, because of faithfulness to Thee, are rejected on every hand. (Compare Psalm 142:3). Two prayers follow - the first concerning the Lord's way, with a desire to be led in a plain path because of his enemies, who were watching, in the hope that he might go astray; and the second for deliverance from his enemies, because false witnesses had already risen up against him, and such as breathed out cruelty. (See Psalm 62:2-4.)

Should this not encourage us? Are we forsaken, left alone, isolated? Then is the time to lean upon the Lord Himself. We may with grief see the multitude turn away, but like Paul we may unmoved press on. In whatever circumstances we are, He is sufficient for us. To have His company, and His smile, is essential. Nothing else is.

Dear reader, have you found refuge with the rejected Christ? A person doesn't do so until he is without resource and has lost all hope of helping himself. The world in this case will despise you, but not as much as you will despise yourself. And nonetheless you will lack nothing. The felt presence of the Lord Jesus experienced by your soul; the treasures of the Word placed at your disposition and known, as even a Jonathan clinging to Saul's court was never able to know them; and finally the means of approaching God, furnished by the priesthood of Christ who brings us into fellowship with Him: such are the benefits which our David dispenses during the time of His rejection.

Left alone for a time, his convictions as to the Lord had been strengthened. Never afterwards would he have cause to regret that he had been forced to stand alone. And though during that time his understanding as to the Lord fell far short of the truth of His person, of nothing that the man had advanced to the Pharisees had he to be ashamed. Then, when needing sympathy, he found far more than that. The Lord, appearing to him, taught him of the excellence of his Benefactor, and who He really was, The Son of God was not ashamed of the beggar. He did not deem the man unfit to be in His company. Has not all this a voice still? If cast out for the truth's sake, the individual can surely count on the interest of Christ in him, and of His ministry to him.

How pregnant with divine refreshment are the words of the beloved apostle, "At my first defence no man stood with me, but all deserted me … But the Lord stood with me, and gave me power" (2 Tim. 4:16-17). May each one of us be marked increasingly by that simple, unquestioning, child-like confidence in our faithful God, as it is written, "Satisfied with your present circumstances, for He has said, I will not leave thee, neither will I forsake thee" (Heb. 13:5).

What a comfort lies here for all about whom the storms of trouble sweep! The Lord is with them, and every sorrow may be laid at His feet and every difficulty told to Him. That life which appears to have the least sorrow has its difficulties and burdens, and none of us have sufficient wisdom or strength to deal with these. But He is sufficient for little trials and for big, and so precious are we to Him that He will never abandon us. Only let it be realized that the grace of God brought Him down to us, not only to save us, but to abide with us , and that He is ever by our side to support and succour us and to sympathize with us, and it will change the aspect of every sorrow and produce the song where the sigh has been. It is the realization of His presence that can lead the saint of God to say, “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for THOU ART WITH ME; Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me” (Ps. 23). And if “He hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee,” we may boldly say, “The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me” (Heb. 13:5-6).

And the Lord says to Samuel: “Hearken unto the voice of the people in all that they say unto thee: for they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected Me, that I should not reign over them. According to all the deeds that they have done since the day that I brought them out of Egypt even unto this day, in that they have forsaken Me and served other gods, so do they also unto thee” (vv. 7-8). Precious encouragement given by God to His servant at the very moment when he was personally undergoing a discipline of which the elders of Israel had become the instruments. Nothing could be more consoling to his heart than the assurance of being, after all, on the Lord's side, and now that the Lord had been rejected, the necessity of being rejected himself as well. Is it not an honor to share the shame that the world casts on our Lord in spurning Him? Is it astonishing that the world acts in the same way toward us? Even while He is disciplining him, God identifies Samuel with Himself, whereas the people, under an appearance of judging evil, were identifying themselves with the nations. It is better to be a humbled Samuel, disregarded, alone with a rejected God, than an Israel, armed with a powerful outward organization which gives them the illusion of being able to do without God and act according to their own will, whereas they were in fact the slaves of the world and of Satan.

Are we able to lean on the Lord amid the ruin around us? Is He beyond every one and everything to our souls? Can we encourage ourselves in Him when all without and within seems directly against us? Is His name dear to us in this day of faithlessness and cold formality? Are we prepared to pursue the rest of our course through the desert in solitariness and desertion, if such should be needful? It may be, we have learnt to cease looking, in any way, to the children of this world; but are we prepared to lose the approval and confidence of our brethren? David's companions spake of stoning him; but the Lord was more to him than all; the Lord was "his refuge", do we know the power and comfort of this? The Lord grant that we may know it more.

But we will note that, as David had received comfort from the priesthood and affords them shelter from their enemy, so too he has the presence of the prophet of God. How good it is thus to see that if God calls his people into a path of rejection, it does not preclude them from the enjoyment of all the advantages of His presence, and communion with Him, and guidance by His word! And what was all the display that was about Saul, in array and numbers, in dignities and honors, when the prophet refused to attend him, and the priest was driven from him, while he himself was a prey to an evil spirit and his own dark heart?

It is cause for thanksgiving that, in spite of the general breakdown, the blessed God has preserved those with whom His people can associate. Doubtless there are still saints of God who, like John on Patmos, find themselves alone; to such, as to John, the Lord would draw particularly near, speaking to them of His unceasing love, and assuring them of the sympathy of One who had felt loneliness as none other. "I looked for some … for comforters, but I found none" (Psalm 69:20).