God Is Not Mad at You: You Can Experience Real Love, Acceptance & Guilt-free Living by Joyce Meyer Page B

women he looks at online or in magazines, and that I could never make him feel the way they do.” She was devastated by his statement and seemed to be unable to get beyond it, so she was asking for advice. I told her that she had to realize that he had a problem and not to let him blame it on her. Hurting people hurt people! Something was wrong inside him that made him want to do what he was doing, and his behavior was sinful. I told her to pray for him, and to let him know that he could not make her feel bad about herself, because she knew that God loved her.
    Don’t let someone else’s bad behavior toward you make you feel bad about yourself. I realize that it is easier said than done, because our emotions and feelings get involved and emotional pain is actually one of the worst kinds of pain we experience. We can take a pain pill to get rid of physical pain, but no pills are available for emotional pain. That is why we must recognize it for what it is and know that if we don’t feed it by giving in to it, it will eventually fade and go away. You can’t help feeling it, but you don’t have to let it determine your actions. You can learn to manage your emotions and not let them manage you. You can learn to live beyond your feelings! Press through the pain and live your life!

Don’t Reject Yourself
    The devil’s long-term goal is that we ultimately reject ourselves and live a life of misery. The devil is against us and he wants us to be against us, too. Fortunately, God is for us, and when we learn how to agree with God and what He says about us in His Word, the devil loses out entirely and his plan does not succeed.
    I can’t even count all the times and ways in my life that I have experienced deeply painful rejection, but I am happy to say that through God’s help and healing power, I like myself! We should all have a healthy love and respect for ourselves. I like to say, “Don’t be in love with yourself, but do love yourself.” If Jesus loved you enough to die for you, you should never demean or reject yourself.
    No matter how many other people love you, if you don’t love yourself, you will still feel lonely.
    God’s desire is that we become trees of righteousness bearing good fruit (Isaiah 61:3). However, if we reject ourselves, our fruit will be fear, depression, negativism, lack of self-confidence, anger, hostility and self-pity. And that is just the beginning of all the bad fruit we will have. We will also be confused and totally miserable. It is impossible to be happy if you hate and despise or reject yourself.
    No matter how many other people love you, if you don’t love yourself, you will still feel lonely.

Causes and Results of Rejection
    You may feel as if you have always been unhappy and you just don’t know what is wrong. I knew a woman like that. She was a fine Christian woman who had a lovely family and home, butshe could not seem to get beyond the feeling that something was missing inside her. She was tormented with feelings of insecurity and being unloved. She eventually discovered that she had been adopted, that her birth mother didn’t want her and she had been left on the doorstep of a hospital.
    There are many things that can open the door for a spirit of rejection to fill our souls and being to rule our lives. It’s good for us to know the root causes of the rejection we feel because the truth sets us free. Sometimes the sheer act of understanding will help us to deal with an issue effectively.
    Here are some of the things that may cause a person to feel rejected. Look them over and ask yourself if any of them relate to you or someone you know.
Unwanted conception
A mother who contemplated or attempted abortion
A child born of the wrong sex, in the parents’ eyes (for example, they wanted a boy and got a girl)
Parents disappointed with a child who is born with physical or mental disabilities
Comparison to another sibling
Adoption
Death of one or both parents
Abuse, including