Philippians 4:21
“Greet every saint in Christ Jesus. The brothers who are with me greet you.”
I love this. We are to greet every saint. There will be some pain here. While we are to greet all the saints, not all will return our greeting. This is painful. We reach out and our greeting falls flat. We are still to do so. We can temper it. While we may have given an invitation, we don’t have to go that far. Just a greeting is necessary.
What we wrestle with is the anger we feel by the rejection. I don’t think this ever goes away. We aren’t to camp there. We are to forgive. Jesus says up to 70 times 7. Cast our cares upon Him (I Peter 5:7). We pray, “Lord, help me to forgive and to keep loving.”
I’ve tried to adopt a new attitude when this happens. I see them as doing me a favor. They have communicated that I don’t have to spend time here. Jesus put it this way, “And if anyone will not welcome you or heed your words, shake the dust off your feet when you leave that home or town”, (Matthew 10:14). We don’t have to be rude, ignore them. We don’t need to make it obvious.
Don’t allow the hurt to take up residence. Hebrews 12:15 says, “See to it that no one falls short of the grace of God, and that no root of bitterness springs up to cause trouble and defile many.” We have to go back to God multiple times. Lord, help me to forgive. We can fantasize about their demise. Don’t go there. Trust Him that we’re forgiven even through bad feelings are present. Forgive by faith. Move on. We shouldn’t invest time being resentful. They aren’t concerned about us, move on.
They are doing us a favor in that they are telling us not to invest in them. Spend our time and energy elsewhere. Don’t cast pearls before swine. I’m not calling them swine, just don’t invest there.
Keep our joy and cheerfulness. While rejection hurts, don’t let it sour our joy. Keep greeting. God is the master at this. Isaiah 65:2 says, “All day long I have held out My hands to an obstinate people who walk in the wrong path, who follow their own imaginations.” God still reaches out even though they aren’t interested. We are to do the same. Keep greeting even though we don’t get the response we hope. We are like God when we do so.
Lord, thank You for being persistent with us. I’m not sure how long I didn’t respond to You. Thank You for letting me turn to You. Help us to be persistent in loving others.