The Fear Of Rejection

“And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”
Luke 1:30-33

A popular saying today is “faith over fear.” God wants us to overcome our fears and embrace the truth found through faith in Jesus. During this advent season, we see that just like Mary, we must face our fears if we are to see God move in our lives. Mary is approached by an angel with good news, but the angel senses something in Mary, he senses her fear, so his message to her starts with “do not be afraid…”

Often when God is going to do something new in us or through us, it causes fear to rise up in us. It causes us to experience anxiety about what may or may not happen. In our heads, thoughts start to run out of control. In our previous devotional, we saw that Mary was “greatly troubled” at the angels message (v.29).

Whenever God wants to do something new with his people, the first thing we have to overcome is fear. Fear seeks to rise up in our hearts and paralyze us. It’s a common tactic with the enemy to try and scare us into doing nothing. If he can create enough fear in us, we will stop in our tracks and sometimes run the other direction. The prophet Jonah tried this. He let fear drive him away from God and he ended up in the belly of a whale.

The angel here is trying to reassure Mary. There is no reason for fear, for you have found favor with God. Now, the opposite is also true in this case. If you do not have favor with God, you have plenty of reasons to fear, but this is not the message to Mary. She had found favor with God, so there is no reason to fear.

When God is doing something new in you or through you, its because he is showing you favor. I believe he does nothing in you without showing you grace first. He knows your heart, he knows that you are not perfect and in order to move in your life, He is going to have to show you favor first.

Mary was shown favor before she was impregnated with Jesus. She was favored before she had done anything for God. Keep that in your mind. Too often, we think we achieve the Lord’s favor by doing something for Him, but what we actually see in the Scriptures is that God shows us favor first, then we do mighty works for Him. We serve Him from a place of favor.

In order to serve Him though, we first have to overcome the fear. Perhaps Mary, as a young girl from a small town, with little money, was not worth anything to God. Perhaps she felt shame for this. She likely had many of the same thoughts and feelings about our lives and our past as we do, so the fear that she was dealing with here may have been the fear of rejection.

Mary may have felt like if she ever came face to face with God, she would be rejected. The angel assures her this is not the case. You haven’t been rejected, you are favored! What a powerful thought! God isn’t rejecting us, he is embracing us. We do not need to fear being rejected by Him, He is coming to us and for us.

This is the message of Christmas. God came down from his throne on high, not to reject us, but to rescue us. He came to save us. Do not be afraid of Him, He is showing you his favor, his grace. Embrace Him as you would a baby boy.

Prayer - Father, as we enter this season of advent, help us to put away our fears of rejection. Help us to embrace you fully with no fear about our relationship. Lord, we know you love us and that you sent your son to us, to save us. Thank you for the gift of Jesus. Amen.