The Mirror

Written By: Remaliah Evans

There are few things that we can always count on in life. One of them is rejection. Cheer up, this gets better. Throughout life your ideas and opinions will be rejected and people may even reject you. Perhaps that is why Jesus warned us that offense would come. Rejection is experienced repeatedly by every person who achieved success. For the sake of this blog, I’ll define success as accomplishing what you have been working toward. I love to read success stories because they inspire me. Did you know the authors of Chicken Soup For The Soul were rejected 140 times before the book was finally published and sold over 125 million copies? Oprah was fired from a news reporter job and a producer job before hosting her own show. Thomas Edison tried to invent the light bulb 1,000 times before he succeeded. Every success story includes failures and rejection. So how is it that these people achieved what they had been working for? Simply put: they got back up.

Proverbs 24:16 says that a righteous [woman] falls seven times and rises again. Righteous means to have a right relationship with Christ, so if you are saved this verse refers to you. When you are rejected, or when your ideas or work are rejected, your morale falls. Enthusiasm falls, confidence falls, momentum falls, or your countenance falls. The solution is to get up. Every time. How do you get up? Good question. You look in the mirror. Not your compact or your bathroom mirror. The mirror of Jesus, the mirror of the word. 2 Corinthians 3:18 “But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.” In this verse you see that you are to look to the Lord and behold His glory, with nothing in between you and Him. When you look at Him it is like looking in a mirror. As you behold the Lord you begin to look more like Him, and you go from glory to glory.

Here in this verse, God is confirming your identity and your relationship with Him. He is saying look at Me and you will see all of the beautiful and wonderful attributes that I have placed inside of you. Look at Me and you will see all of the ways that you resemble Me. You are looking more and more like your Father, every day. You are My daughter, I created you, I love you, and you are glorious.

The word glory has several meanings; after researching the Greek, here is what I gather: your glory (not to be confused with God’s glory) is the clear display of who you really are, in Christ. The best of who you are. It is when you reflect Christ. James 1:17 says that “every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.” All of the good in you- your character, your talents, the way you love people, your creativity- these are all gifts from your Father.

When you are rejected, it is easy to look away from your Father, and accept a counterfeit identity. A counterfeit identity is any identity other than your God-given identity as a daughter of Christ. Rejection tries to steal your identity. Rejection says you’re not good enough, you’re never gonna make it, you’ve made too many mistakes, you don’t have what it take, just give up. When you keep your eyes on the Lord He confirms your true identity: you are loved, you are the apple of His eye, you are light, you are the righteousness of God in Christ, you are more than a conqueror through Christ Jesus, you are worth dying for, you can do all things through Christ who strengthens you, you are accepted by your loving Father.

Not only does He say this but He shows you! Looking to the Father speaks of relationship and revelation. When you look to Him, you begin to understand His glory and His goodness, and He shows you the glory that He has given you according to John 17:22-23. The next time rejection comes, continue looking in the mirror, look at Your Father and let Him continually show you who He is, and who you are.