Rejection Was God’s Preservative
Before I begin to share why rejection is God’s preservative, let me define what a preservative is and why it’s used. A preservative is something that protects against decay, discoloration, or spoilage. It keeps something from going bad before its time. When I look back over my life, I now realize that God was doing the same thing with me. He was preserving me — protecting me from being destroyed — even though it didn’t feel like it in the moment.
Rejection was never meant to break you. It was meant to preserve you. It was God’s way of saying, “Not this one, not now, not here.” You see, when God’s hand is on your life, He won’t let everything attach to you — not every person, not every opportunity, not every stage. Some “no’s” were actually heaven’s way of protecting your heart from decay and keeping your purpose pure.
For a long time, I couldn’t see it. I just saw the pain. I remember the day I had to come face to face with myself and admit that I didn’t love me. I wanted my ex-husband to love me broken, but I didn’t even love me broken. I wanted someone else to do what only God could — make me whole. Sometimes, we’re out here chasing love from people when what we really need is the One who is Love.
I’ll never forget the day I opened my heart fully to the Lord and said, “God, teach me how You love me.” I asked Him to reveal to me the love He and I shared in eternity. And He did. It became the most intimate season of my life — encounter after encounter where He loved me back to life. Every layer of rejection peeled away as His love became my covering.
Rejection redirected me. It became a preservative — not poison. The Word says in Song of Solomon that God’s banner over us is love. His banner over me is love, and it’s over you too. I didn’t take my own life when the enemy came to steal, kill, and destroy me because I had a revelation of that love. And if you’re struggling with suicide or rejection right now, I want you to know the same truth: rejection didn’t come to destroy you — it came to preserve you and point you back to God’s love.
The enemy wants to use rejection to distort your identity. He wants you so wounded that you reject God’s will for your life. But God uses rejection as redirection — to guide you back to His heart.
Another way the Lord showed me how He used rejection to preserve me was in my purity and preparation for my future husband. I wrote a letter on December 20, 2024, and in it I said: “Now I understand that every time I was rejected, God was preserving my love for you.” I can see now that even before I fully surrendered to Christ, He was keeping me from paths of destruction — even when I didn’t know it.
Rejection is God’s preservative when we learn to respond to His love instead of reacting to the enemy’s lies. And through it all, I found out how much God loved me so that I could know how much God loves those I’m called to share my love with — no matter how broken or bruised they may be.
Prayer:
Father, I pray for every person battling rejection and suicidal thoughts. Let them feel Your presence right now. Remind them that You promised to deliver us from every affliction. Reveal Your love to them as You did to me. Heal their soul. Break the spirit of rejection and suicide. Restore their identity in You. Open their eyes to see that their help comes from You, and that their best days are still ahead. Lord, remember them like You remembered Samson and avenge every wound. In Jesus’ name, Amen.