People can react inappropriately when they feel rejected due to lies they believe and not examining their assumptions. Examining those beliefs through Identify the lie, Challenge the lie, and Replace the lie with truth can help slow down reactions.
- Some lies we believe include: “It’s personal” when it may not be, “I deserve better”, and “This proves you don’t love me.” Scripture teaches that people are imperfect and we only have what God gives.
- Jesus experienced rejection on our behalf. His disciples deserted him, his family rejected him, and his community did not believe him. Even his father rejected him on the cross.
- Through faith in Jesus, we have perfect acceptance and can never be rejected by God. His love is so perfect that it fully satisfies our need to be accepted.
- We can combat lies when feeling rejected by using the ICR technique : Identify the lie we are believing, Challenge the lie by confronting it with truth, and Replace the lie with truth from God’s word.
Jesus experienced rejection so that through him we can experience perfect acceptance from our Heavenly Father. The ICR technique can help us regulate our reactions when we feel rejected.