I realize that it has been about two months since I wrote on this blog. I changed jobs with the agency I work with from an intensive in home team lead to outpatient therapist around the beginning of August. I have been trying to build up my case load and get to know my new clients the last two months. I have been continuing at times my study into Romans and found a passage in Romans that struck me as interesting.
In my work as a therapist, I meet people who have experienced intense rejection. Parents who neglect their children or children who have experienced trauma. It is unfortunately more common than you may realize. What I found from my reading in Romans 10:13-21 is that the Lord Jesus has also experienced rejection. He can understand us and minister to our hurts and dark places because he has been there. Not only that, but as the perfect son of God He did absolutely nothing to deserve it.
Unfortunately, this rejection of the Lord runs throughout scripture. From the time when the people said they wanted a king over them in 1 Samuel and rejected God as their king. To multiple times through Israel's history when they chose idols over God. It led John to say in the gospel of John "He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him." John 1:11. It led Jesus to cry over Jerusalem because as Jesus said, "you did not recognize the time of your visitation." It led the Lord to say here in Romans about Israel that they are a "people who continually provoke Me to my face." Is 65:3a.
The guilty party is not just Israel. Every time I turn my back on God and want to do things my own way I am guilty also. Our own pride, as it said earlier in Romans, doesn't want to obey God and doesn't even know how. I think this has its foundation in human pride. Our pride holds us back from feeling indebted to God by accepting salvation as a free gift rather than something that can be earned. Would pride cause us rather to try to find a way to earn it, even when our good deeds are filthy rags to God? Do we realize that our pride alienates us from God?
I find it comforting to know that Jesus was willing to become the "man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief" Is 53:3 He was willing to identify with his creation. I should realize that if I have experienced rejection from others, he has experienced far more. He knows exactly what that feels like. Yet, his overwhelming grace and love provides mercy for me instead of unforgiveness or anger. He keeps reaching out to us despite the fact that we fail Him so often.
In my work as a therapist, I meet people who have experienced intense rejection. Parents who neglect their children or children who have experienced trauma. It is unfortunately more common than you may realize. What I found from my reading in Romans 10:13-21 is that the Lord Jesus has also experienced rejection. He can understand us and minister to our hurts and dark places because he has been there. Not only that, but as the perfect son of God He did absolutely nothing to deserve it.
Unfortunately, this rejection of the Lord runs throughout scripture. From the time when the people said they wanted a king over them in 1 Samuel and rejected God as their king. To multiple times through Israel's history when they chose idols over God. It led John to say in the gospel of John "He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him." John 1:11. It led Jesus to cry over Jerusalem because as Jesus said, "you did not recognize the time of your visitation." It led the Lord to say here in Romans about Israel that they are a "people who continually provoke Me to my face." Is 65:3a.
The guilty party is not just Israel. Every time I turn my back on God and want to do things my own way I am guilty also. Our own pride, as it said earlier in Romans, doesn't want to obey God and doesn't even know how. I think this has its foundation in human pride. Our pride holds us back from feeling indebted to God by accepting salvation as a free gift rather than something that can be earned. Would pride cause us rather to try to find a way to earn it, even when our good deeds are filthy rags to God? Do we realize that our pride alienates us from God?
I find it comforting to know that Jesus was willing to become the "man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief" Is 53:3 He was willing to identify with his creation. I should realize that if I have experienced rejection from others, he has experienced far more. He knows exactly what that feels like. Yet, his overwhelming grace and love provides mercy for me instead of unforgiveness or anger. He keeps reaching out to us despite the fact that we fail Him so often.
