Did you ever experience unrequited love – being in love with someone who rejected you? I have… back in the day when I was a teenager, I was totally rejected by a girl! Man, that hurt… all the way into my soul!

…Or perhaps you have also experienced being rejected by a very close friend?? I have experienced that too.… I once received a letter from a very close friend who never again wanted to have anything to do with me. It hurt SO bad – and I had SUCH a hard time getting over it… I didn’t just loose a friend, he was almost a brother.

Are you a parent who has experienced your children completely getting on “the wrong track” and refusing to listen to your wisdom/advice – or that they do things like rejecting you as a parent or perhaps even rejecting your faith in Jesus… then you already know that it is one of the most painful things you have ever experienced…

But do you know that Jesus is actually the friend who sacrificed EVERYTHING for you? He gave his life on the cross for YOUR sake, because it was the ONLY way he could deliver you from the judgment Adam and Eve had brought upon us all: Hell fire when we die. Jesus went ALL the way for you! He COULD have defended Himself, but He chose to remain silent when he was whipped, spit on, ridiculed, stripped, shoved, and finally hung on a cross in extreme pain with nails pounded through his hands and feet. And the most amazing thing… the last words he exclaimed on the cross were: ” Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do!”

When you say ”thanks, but no thanks” to following and obeying Jesus, you leave Him in even greater sorrow than when you yourself were rejected by the love of your life, or when you were stabbed in the back by your best friend, etc….! This is because Jesus knows the consequences of what happens if you choose to stay under the “judgment of Adam and Eve”. So, not only are you rejecting Jesus – someone who truly wants to be allowed to love you and take care of you and be loved in return, but you are actually rejecting being delivered in every way. You are rejecting a FATHER who will truly love you and who will NEVER let you down…!

Regardless of your current situation in life, remember that it is NOT God’s fault… instead, aim your ammunition at Satan, who only wants to destroy! On the other hand, Jesus has been through more than any other human, both physically, mentally, and spiritually. God wants to take care of you and have fellowship with you! He wants to be the Father that advises you in no uncertain terms to keep your hand off the hot burner. He wants to be the Father who bring you up and give you wisdom. He wants to be the Father who pushes you lovingly to bear fruit (but when he pushes you, it might feel a little hard) – and he also wants to cut off the branches that don’t bear fruit.

So, the question is… will you place your hand on the hot burner and live to regret it after it is too late, and you have already been burned? Or will you listen to God and obey Him when He tells you not to touch your hand to the burner? In other words – do you have the courage to trust in Jesus and allow Him to guide you in life, even though it might go against your own ideas? Or are you so willful that you want to make your own decisions to the exclusion of God? It might feel great, making your own decisions… but believe me… once you touch the burner and get scarred for life, it’s no longer fun and games. It might not always feel great to be brought up by God, but if you could see what he spares you from, He would have your eternal gratitude.

So, if you have rejected God as your father and rejected Jesus as your friend… then why? You have everything to gain by becoming His child and actively choosing to let Him take care of you…!

Andreas Slot-Henriksen
18 December 2019

Translated from Danish by
Lisbeth Agerskov Christensen