How to Handle Your Emotions (Counseling Through the Bible Series) (50 page)

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Authors: June Hunt

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If you are thoroughly persuaded that God has rejected you, then you don’t know the God of the Bible and His special plan for you. The Lord says,

“For I know the plans I have for you…plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future”

(J
EREMIAH
29:11).

What Do You Need to Know About God?

K
NOW
G
OD’S CHARACTER

—
God is love.

“God is love”

(1 J
OHN
4:8).

—
God loves you.

“I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving-kindness”

(J
EREMIAH
31:3).

K
NOW
G
OD’S HEART

—
God wants to adopt you into His family.

“How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!”

(1 J
OHN
3:1).

—
God wants to be your guide through life.

“Trust in the L
ORD
with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight”

(P
ROVERBS
3:5-6).

K
NOW
G
OD’S PLAN

—
God offers salvation to all.

“God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him”

(J
OHN
3:17).

—
God wants everyone to be saved, including you.

“He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance”

(2 P
ETER
3:9).

K
NOW
G
OD’S PURPOSES

—
God uses your suffering to hone your character and increase your hope.

“We also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us”

(R
OMANS
5:3-5).

—
God gives you compassion and comfort, which, in turn, you can give to others.

“The Father of compassion and the God of all comfort… comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows”

(2 C
ORINTHIANS
1:3-5).

What Is the Key to God’s Acceptance?

Have you ever tried to open a door with a key…but the wrong key? It won’t work! Unless you use the right key, you cannot get inside. God has already shared the “key” to entering into an everlasting relationship with Him, the key to never being rejected.

Here are four points you need to know about you and God:

1. You have entered through the wrong door.
You, like everyone else, have chosen to sin.

You cannot find your way to acceptance with God if you have entered through the wrong door. The Bible says that we all have sinned—not one of us is perfect. Each time we willfully choose to go our own way, and not God’s way, we sin.

“All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”

(R
OMANS
3:23).

2. You have lost the key to God’s acceptance.
Your sin separates you from God.

You cannot open a locked door without the right key. Your own sin has locked the right door, the door to God, and you have no key to open that door. Because God’s character is morally perfect (He is without sin), our sin results in a penalty or consequence. The Bible
says that the consequence of our sin is separation from God. Because of your sin, you are separated from God.

“Your iniquities [sins] have separated you from your God”

(I
SAIAH
59:2).

3. You have been given a new key to God’s door of acceptance.
God provided the way for you to be forgiven.

The heavenly Father sent His own Son, Jesus, to die on the cross to pay the penalty for your sins. You deserved to die, but instead, Christ died for you. God offers to you the only key—the Lord Jesus Christ—that will open the door to God’s eternal acceptance.

“God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us”

(R
OMANS
5:8)

4. You can open the door of acceptance.
You can receive God’s forgiveness and peace by trusting in Jesus Christ now.

While you may hold the key to the door, you still have to unlock the door. You need to acknowledge that Jesus Christ died as your substitute, rely on what He did for you, and ask Him to come into your life to take control of your life. If you allow Him to be your Lord and Savior, He forgives you of your sins. And when you are forgiven, not only are you saved from separation from God, but you also are given the peace of God. He is standing at the door of your heart right now.

“Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me”

(R
EVELATION
3:20).

If you desire to be fully forgiven by God and to receive the peace of God, you can ask Jesus Christ to come into your life right now and give you His peace.

Prayer of Salvation

God,

I want a secure relationship with You.

I admit that many times

I’ve rejected Your way and gone my way.

Please forgive me for my sins.

Jesus, thank You for dying
on the cross for my sins.
Come into my life to be
my Lord and my Savior.

Thank You for wanting me.

Thank You for accepting me.
Thank You for adopting me.

Thank You that You
will never leave me nor forsake me.

In Your holy name I pray. Amen.

If you sincerely prayed this prayer, this is God’s promise to you:

“The L
ORD
himself goes before you and will be
with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.
Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged”

(D
EUTERONOMY
31:8).

Those who will not walk through the door of salvation to God’s acceptance may sense God’s rejection. In reality, by choosing to reject God they have also chosen to be rejected by God. This fact is illustrated by King Saul’s choice to reject God’s Word. The godly prophet Samuel told Saul that, as a result, “I will not go back with you. You have rejected the word of the Lord, and the Lord has rejected you as king over Israel!” (1 Samuel 15:26).

D. Replace the Negative Progression with the New

Our core beliefs control every area of our lives. Even when we don’t consciously recognize their influence, they are still at work, silently penetrating our thoughts, feelings, and, inevitably, our actions. Identifying and
changing our negative core beliefs will help us replace unhealthy, destructive actions with new behaviors that honor God and others. The Bible says,