By, Rachel Moses
You loved…and that love was rejected. It doesn’t have to be romantic love to sting. Your teenager, an adult sibling, that friend who was hurting, a random person you felt God telling you to help - you obeyed His call to love, expecting Him to keep you safe, and now your heart is broken.
It’s oh so tempting to lock down our hearts in desperate attempts to stop the pain. But choosing that route is like trying to hide the sun. Love must act, speak, cry, give. Locked up hearts grow bitter, resentful, hateful, and cold.
I remember a tough day recently. I loved. And got hurt. And cried. I opened my mouth to say “God, love is HARD, and it hurts.” Almost audibly I heard Him say “I know.” (cue MORE tears lol)
Love was hard for Him too, and for the Son He turned His back on for our sakes. But Hebrews tells us that for the JOY set before Jesus, He endured the cross, despising the shame.
Shame…that tricky tool the enemy loves to use to make us hate and hide and lie. Jesus stared shame in the face, said “not today,” and kept on walking the road of love…the one that caused His death.
In the face of a bitter rejection, Corrie ten Boom’s father told her to “ask God to open up another route for that love to travel” instead of closing her heart to stop the pain. We must do the same if we are to remain tender and open to the opportunities God brings us to love others. Through my tears I asked Him that question and the very next day I had an open door to love someone else who both welcomed and reciprocated it. It helped my feeble heart.
Has your heart been broken by rejected love? Take the pieces to Jesus. He knows exactly how it feels. Refuse to give in to the shame and ask Him to show you where to direct your big, kind heart. The world needs us to valiantly continue to let God’s love flow through our hearts. We can trust Him to both complete and protect what He initiates.
Everyone that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God.
He that loveth not knoweth not God, for God is love.
1 John 4:7-8