Fulfilled: The NIV Devotional Bible for the Single Woman

Left Behind

“I will never leave you nor forsake you.” Joshua 1:5

Rejection and I are intimately acquainted. We met the night of my wedding rehearsal when my fiancé came into the church and announced that he “just couldn’t do it.” This man I adored, wanted to go through life with, raise children with and grow old with basically said he just didn’t feel the same way. I was devastated beyond belief.

The strange thing is that while my family and friends hated my fiancé for what he had done, the only person I hated was God. I had loved God my whole life and thought he loved me, and yet he had allowed this terrible thing to happen. I thought, How can a loving God reject me like this? Allow me to hurt like this?

People gave me lots of “wisdom” in the following months. But the one line I clung to was this: Man’s rejection, God’s protection. Yes, a man had rejected me. But God loved me so much that he allowed this terrible thing to happen. He no doubt was protecting me from what certainly would have been a bad marriage and eventual divorce. And through the pain and the spiritual growth that later came, he was also protecting me for something else: a deeper relationship with him and, I believe, the man he has chosen for me.

If you and rejection have become acquainted lately, and if you feel rejected by God himself, know this: God hears your cries and understands your pain. But he may be protecting you from something far worse and for something far greater—the peace you have in knowing he will never, ever reject you.

KIMBERLEY KENNEDY

God has shown us, in the person of Jesus, the only One who will never reject us, never leave us, never disappoint or hurt us.

—kimberley kennedy

Heavenly Father, what a comfort it is to wake up every morning knowing that your love is forever.