Overcoming Rejection

What comes to your mind, what people, what circumstances, what painful memory when you hear: Dropped, discarded, pushed away, shoved aside, spurned, jilted, brushed off, excluded, not invited, disinherited, fired, broke up, abused, neglected, abandoned, ignored, dismissed, kicked in the teeth, replaced, forsaken, betrayed.

Everybody has some situations like that and what I will tell you is that you are, today, in significant measure a result of the rejection of your past. We all experience rejection, those words everyone in this room, some of those words you have experienced, some people have experienced them in traumatic, horrendous ways, other people in significantly deep ways.

And the tragedy is when we experience rejection there is a pattern that occurs that whatever we experience we just pass on to the people around us. We pass it on, especially to our children. Consciously and unconsciously.

On the front of your notes I put, “The rejection syndrome,” if you are interested in more information on this a fellow named Charles R. Solomon wrote a book called The Rejection Syndrome. You can Google His name. It’s Solomon just like King Solomon.

And he’s written a number of books on the topic. But He says, “Here is the message we hear. At the core of rejection is this message: You don’t measure up. Either you’re not tall enough, you’re not strong enough, you’re not pretty enough, you’re not smart enough. Verbally or non-verbally a message you got was, ‘You don’t measure up.’ You’re too tall, you’re a loser, you’re a mistake, you were an accident, we don’t want you.”

The belief system, then, creates “I’m bad, I’m inferior, I’m unwanted, I’m unworthy of love.” So that becomes the filter. So, for some of us we try and prove that’s not true and for others we just live out thinking it is true.

And, by the way, when you believe that, it’s hard to receive love. This is a bizarre, bizarre type thing - people who don’t believe they’re lovable, when you try and love them they kind of shut you down, and so, guess what? They put up walls - and you know what people feel like when you try and love someone and they put up a wall? What happens to them? They feel rejected.

So, the very thing we don’t even want to pass on, we do.

The beliefs we embrace, then, create the pain that we feel of isolation, abandonment, self-doubt, and self-hatred. And since those are too painful to deal with, most of us have games that we play. Some of us go into denial, withdrawal, compensation, manipulation, we attack, we pretend. I mean, all of us do those… or a combination of them.

Our first parents blamed, “Adam! Did you eat from the tree?” “It was her!” Right? Some people just blame God. That’s what Eve did. “Who made this place? I don’t know where that serpent come from. I don’t know, I was just here.” And so, then the message that we send, often unintentionally, to other people is, “You don’t measure up.”

In our weird psyche, there is something about, depending on your personality and your background, there is something about then, comparing yourself with other people and so if you can push other people down, even mentally or in your judgment or in your words, in some perverse way, it makes you, and makes me, feel like we’re “better than.”

And so, we compare ourselves with people all the time. And we put them down and if they look different on the outside, or come from a different background, or believe a little bit differently… so we are constantly communicating rejection of other people that’s rooted in this inferiority, and insecurity, and issues - so that the only way for some of us is we try and control everything and everyone, to give us this artificial sense of safety.

And we’re very perfectionistic because the big world you can’t control, and you can’t control what’s going on inside, so you just try and find some things you can control.

And so, the rejection syndrome keeps going on, and on, and on, and the definition of rejection, if you’re just wondering, Webster says, “It’s to throw out as worthless, useless, sub-standard, to pass over, to skip, to rebuff, especially to deny the acceptance or care or love of someone.”

But, you know what? Even just Webster’s, you read that, isn’t that depressing? I mean, useless, sub-standard. Now, I’m going to tell you that most of us are sophisticated enough, and our denial levels are so strong that a lot of us have pushed those feelings down so deep, you don’t even realize that some of your behaviors and patterns are rooted in that.

Charles R. Solomon, I like his very quick definition of rejection. “It’s the absence of meaningful love.” When you don’t feel deeply loved.

Now I want to do a little research and I won’t spend too much time on this but I want to evaluate rejection. There are two types: There is overt rejection, in other words, it’s very clear, it really comes at you. And then there is covert rejection. It’s under the water system.

Overt rejection is just willful, known abuse – verbal, emotional, or physical. Some of you have been there. The covert is unintentional rejection that’s emotionally perceived but not intellectually comprehended.

We reject a lot of people and we have been rejected by people. They didn’t mean it at all. I mean, they weren’t trying to reject us. Let me give you some examples how we do that.

Physical isolation, I’m reading a book, in fact, I just finished, called Unbroken. And it’s the story of a World War II man that was in concentration camp after concentration camp. It’s a powerful, powerful book.

But in it, it talks about the personal isolation that they put prisoners in to, literally, break their spirit, to make them feel unworthy, and the way they treated them in ways to get them where they loathed themselves.

Another kind is an absent parent through war, divorce, death. Overprotection - some of us, we swing, we experience this, so as a parent we swing either the total opposite direction, “We don’t want to give our kids what we got,” or unconsciously, we do exactly what our parents did to us.

So, some people out of these loving, loving feelings they overprotect, overprotect, “Be careful, honey,” and so you do too much for them. You know what you communicate when you do everything for your kid or for someone else? What you’re saying is, “You’re dumb, you’re incapable, you can’t do it so I have to do it for you.” Now, the words they hear are, “I love you, I love you, I love you, I take care of you.” The emotions they feel are, “I don’t measure up.” Now, spoiling is just a synonym for rejection. When you make all the decisions for people, when you give them everything basically you’re unconsciously saying, “You’re helpless, you’re inept, you have no self-worth. I have to bribe you to do everything. You always have to get your way all the time.” It creates people with no self-respect, and no discipline, and no self-worth.

And then probably the most common you can put a little star by this one is performance-based love. This is probably the most common of all. This is, “I love you if and I love you because.” I love you if you get good grades, I love you if you do the right thing at the right time, I love you if you’re a good athlete, I love you if you have good SAT scores, I love you if you’re affectionate with me, I love you because you gave me that, I love you because you came from a good family, I love you because you provided a great house, I love you if, I love you because…”

Performance, performance, performance. Many of us, especially in our tradition of loving God, tend to think that even that’s how we earn God’s favor. God loves me when I have a quiet time, God loves me when I give ten percent, He loves me more when I give eleven, twelve, fifteen. Right? God loves me when I serve - He loves me more. God loves me when I go on a short-term missions trip. God loves me when I’m…

I got news for you. He loves you whether you do any of that or not. His love isn’t based on your performance. Those things are simply - part of them are disciplines and conduits of grace to get to know and experience how much He loves you - and the others are out of a heart of gratitude and love, to love other people, not have a score card with God. Performance-based love.

The behavioral impact of either overt or covert rejection is that when we’ve been rejected we will find ourselves rejecting others in the same way.

Now at the extreme level what do we know? Abusers are people who have been abused. You do all the research. Whether it’s emotional, sexual, physical abuse. There is loathing, “I wish I had never done it.” But kids that were abused often, unless they break the cycle, will abuse their kids.

Most of us it’s in lower key ways we experience rejection in some ways and if you don’t see it, own it, recognize it, you’ll pass it on. The emotional impact is feelings of worthlessness, wishing you hadn’t been born, feelings of inferiority, fear of expressing your feelings. Many people are depressed because of rejection.

Most of depression is anger turned inward and pushed down. Emotional insulation. You put up walls, you don’t let people in, overly introspective. People who apologize all the time, “Oh I’m sorry. It’s just…” There is this sense, that’s the emotional payback of rejection.

Perfectionism. This, “Boy, I’ve got to do everything just right,” because, see, your performance is so important and your performance and you have gotten so intermeshed that if you don’t do everything right, if you don’t excel all the time, if the house isn’t always clean, if the report isn’t great, if you aren’t just, just, just, just…

Well, then they’re rejecting you instead of just, that’s just what you do. And people are human, and people make mistakes, and everyone doesn’t get everything on time, perfect all the time.

But for some people there is a drive, an invisible demand that actually ruins your life and makes the people around you crazy. It means your kids have to excel all the time and there is push, push, push, push, push. I mean, two-year-olds playing soccer I want to go, “Are you kidding me?”

At this point you may be wondering, “Is there any hope? Can the cycle of rejection be broken?” And what I want to say, emphatically, is yes, yes, yes, and we’re going to do more than just look at it.  At this point, we could be in a seminar about rejection, and then I could teach you five or six techniques to deal with your rejection.

Here’s how you need to think, here’s “I feel” messages that you can say to people when you feel rejected, and we could go into lots of pop psychology. And some of those techniques actually are very helpful if all you want to do is treat the symptoms.

At the core of emotional, psychological, and soul-rejection is a spiritual issue. And the spiritual issue is until you are right with God, until you understand that you are loved apart from however anyone has ever treated you, or whatever is going on inside, then all the rest of that will never fall in place.

And so, what we’re going to learn now, from verses 7 through about 14, is that you are the object of the King of kings’ - and the Lord of lords and the Maker and Creator of all that there is - affection.

And He has expressed that affection in Christ. In fact, the theme of Ephesians chapter 1, Ephesians chapter 2, and Ephesians chapter 3 is just two words. It’s “In Him,” or “In Christ.”

And often what I do is, I did this recently, I take a big fish tank, a pail of water like this, and I get a big bolt that’s about this big so they can really see it on the screen. And then I have a board that’s about this big and on the board, I have a cross.

And then I have a thick rubber band about like this. And then here is the illustration I use because I want you to get this. If you get this then what we’re going to teach is going to make a lot of sense.

And I hold up the bolt and I say, “This is a big bolt that’s very heavy.” And, you know, you can see it. It’s a huge thing. And I say, “If I drop this in this water, what will happen?” “It will sink.” In which I say, “Fantastic. You’re right.” And then I take this, I take this piece of wood.  it’s about like this and I say, “If I drop this piece of wood in this clear tank, what will it do?” And again, being the intellects that we are there they say, “It will float.”

And I say, “Well why will it float? What’s the nature of wood?” Well why, why does the bolt drop? Because it’s the nature of the bolt. It’s the weight that it has.

And then what I say is I said, “Here’s what Ephesians chapters 1, 2, and 3 is trying to help us understand. It is that this is Christ and He has overcome and He floats because it’s in His nature. He died, He rose again, He has conquered sin, He has conquered death, He has conquered the devil.

This is you and then I take the bolt and I take the big rubber band around it. And I say, “When you trusted in Christ as your Savior,” Romans 6, “you died with Him.” Romans 6, you were co-resurrected with Him that you might walk in newness of life.

Romans chapter 7 is there will always be a challenge and a battle between the flesh and the spirit so it will be a struggle this side of heaven. And Romans 8 is no one can live the Christian life. Only the Spirit of God, as you abide in Him, thanks be to God, there is no condemnation for those that are in Christ Jesus. But the same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead dwells in you and cries, “Abba Father.”

And so, here’s what I want you to know is that now you’re seated with Him in the heavenly places. So, when I drop this in the fish tank, and I say, “Now tell me what’s happening to the bolt? It’s floating.” Why? Is it because it’s trying hard? Is it because it goes to a lot of meetings? Is it because it reads two chapters a day to keep the devil away?

It’s floating because it is in union with the nature of the wood. And now everything that’s true of the wood is true of the bolt. And what the apostle Paul says, for three chapters, is you are in Christ and then He explains what that means.

In fact, after his little verse 3, that you have every spiritual blessing, literally verses 2 through 14 is one long sentence that literally, he just goes off with all these theological words.

And so what I want you to see is the key to your journey is to believe and to trust both intellectually and then down in your heart what it means to be in Christ and then of seeking to earn God’s favor, or earn God’s love, or please people – I already have God’s love, I have God’s acceptance, I have an inheritance, I have His Spirit, I’m adopted as His child.

Now, how do I live - And then, how to I begin to express that to other people, without wanting things back, because I’ve already got the acceptance from Him? Does that make sense?

That’s a very different picture from the mental, emotional, and psychological picture that most people live as the Christian life.

Unconsciously, most of us are still trying to please God, earn God’s favor. And we feel good when we have our quiet time, read our Bible, and aren’t messing and struggling with those besetting sins and we feel really bad.

And it’s, “Try hard, try hard, fail. Try hard, try hard, fake it.” And that’s why we have the Barna research and that’s why we have the Gallup research that says about eight out of every ten Christians who claim they’re born again, or in some studies nine out of ten, they say they believe this, they say, “I have received Jesus,” and their life and their lifestyle says the opposite story.

Jesus has become, in America, the self-help guru, that in the name of Jesus, will give you this wonderful life, this amazing marriage, and you just, here’s the formula: Read the Bible, pray, feel good, get jacked up once a week with someone going, “Everything is going to be okay.”

That’s not New Testament Christianity. And, by the way, it doesn’t work. And that’s why you have disillusioned Christians with their hands on their hips saying, “Hey, God, I did, I did the deal. How come my wife got cancer? I did the deal, how come my kids didn’t turn out right?
So, let’s talk about what it looks like to be in Christ. God’s solution for our rejection, no matter how rejected you have been. And as we go through this, I want to, I want to suggest that there are some lies that we believe and I’m going to identify the lie and then I want to show you in each section how Jesus is the answer to overcoming your rejection and mine.

Lie number one is, “I don’t measure up because of what I’ve done in the past.” And Jesus says, “I will put your past behind you. I will put your past behind you.” Notice, “In Him,” there is that phrase. This is the wood connected to the bolt. Or this is Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection and victory, connected to you.

In Him, we have redemption. How? Through His blood. What exactly is redemption? The forgiveness of our trespasses. Where do you get it, how do you get it? It’s according to the riches of His grace, not your performance, which He lavished on you.

We have redemption. How? Through His blood. And the picture He gives us is redemption.  He’s taking this picture out of the New Testament time.  If you would go into a city there was called the agora, and there was a slave market in the agora. It was sort of a market place. And they would have a little platform and you could buy a slave. You could buy a man, a woman, buy a couple, buy a daughter, whatever you want.

And so, the people would be there in chains and they would be here and you could redeem them. The word that Paul uses, you could redeem them out of slavery, and make them your own.

And that’s the word he uses here. He says, “You and I were in the slave market of sin and we were bound.” And he says, “Jesus came and He paid the purchase price for your sin, that forgave you.” And the word means literally “to release you.” It was a financial term that if someone owed a lot of money, a debt was canceled.

And so, He says, “I’m going to put your past behind you. I’m going to forgive you.” It’s the riches of His grace. The debt is canceled.” And here’s the deal: You have value.

Can I tell you what you’re worth? You’re worth the blood of the Son of God. You say, “Oh, I don’t feel like God loves me.” Well, I don’t know what you feel but let me tell you this: You have been redeemed.

You know how much it cost to get you and me out of the slave market of sin? It cost: the fully-man, fully-God, in space-time history, leaving the glory of heaven, living a perfect life, dying a death for doing nothing wrong but loving people, and when He died and stretched out His arms (and no one killed him) He gave His life. “It is finished.” And through the portal of time and history and eternity, He said, “You were worth that blood,” so He could have relationship with you. And when He did that He released your debt of sin.

So, I don’t know where you’ve been, what you’ve been through, who has abused you, who has hurt you, what rejection but I will tell you: The God of the universe says, “I’ll put your past behind you and you’re valuable and you are free.”

You can let those messages sink into your head, you can be a victim of them the rest of your life but you are free. And you’ve been redeemed and that’s the message.

And see, you know what happens when you start renewing your mind, and you start believing that you’re free and that you’re that valuable? You start living like you’re loved. And when you start living like you’re loved this weird thing happens. You start loving other people. And some of those issues you have of pleasing people and perfectionism, when you really feel loved then you don’t have to earn it and perform it.

The second thing he says is, not only the lie that I don’t measure up because of what I’ve done, but many people think, “I don’t measure up because I don’t have anything to offer.

You know, I’m just, I’m a nobody. There are smart people, I was never first in my class, I was always told I was dumb. I was told I didn’t measure up, I feel like I don’t measure up. I don’t feel like I’m a very good wife, I don’t feel like I’m a very good husband. I wasn’t all that good of a student. I’m not super gifted at… I’m a Christian but I guess there are C-minus Christians. That’s what I think I am. I try hard but…”

And here’s what he says: Jesus has a purpose for your life today. He has a purpose for your life today. He says, “In all wisdom and insight.” The word “wisdom” here is knowledge that sees into the heart of how things really work and “insight” is the practical application of what to do.

In all wisdom and insight after redeeming you He has made known to us the mystery of His will. Literally, the secret of His will. Well, what is the secret of His will? Was it according to His kind intention, which He purposed again, what? In Him with a view to an administration. Literally, it’s just a household economy suitable to the fullness of times. That is the summing up of all things in Christ, things in heaven and things upon the earth.

And you just want to say, “Paul, could you just simplify that for me just a little bit? I mean, there are some, literally, when you diagram this one, here’s, very simply it is: “We,” is the subject, “have obtained,” is the verb, or “We, He made known His will to us,” I put it in bold. And everything else is how He did it, why He did it, and what for. But what he wants you to know: He has a purpose for your life.

And he says that in God’s divine wisdom - the classical definition of wisdom is God brings about the best possible results, for the most possible people, for the longest possible time, for the greatest possible good: that’s God’s wisdom… and He orchestrates everything in a fallen world, in your life and my life, he says so in God’s wisdom to bring about the best and with insight, knowing who you are, and what His purposes are in history and all eternity - here’s what He did. He made known to you - and the word “mystery” here doesn’t mean mysterious, it just means it was a secret before, it wasn’t known before, and now it’s known - the secret of His will. He’s made known His will to you, he’s saying to these Ephesian Christians.

And then he says that His will was made known according to the kind intention, which He purposed in Him. That’s a nice way of saying: His will was made known through what Jesus came to do, and what He accomplished.

And then he says it’s with a view of administration, it’s this idea of a dispensation, or an administration, suitable to the fullness. In other words, times were pregnant. In Galatians it talks about, in the fullness of time when the world was pregnant, when there were Roman roads, and one language, and there was this dispersion of all these Jews everywhere – Jesus came at just the right time, in order to bring the truth of the gospel to the known world.

And the truth that he’s talking about, is this new thing called the Church, this new thing of Jew and Gentile coming together in one body, and this message of this glorious secret, the gospel of Jesus Christ where people can be forgiven, where people will have a new covenant, where the Spirit of God will take up residence in our mortal body, and I will teach My people, and everyone will be taught of the Lord.

And what he’s talking about is the summing up of all things in Christ and all of time and eternity and history.

But the basic message… those were all the things that Paul gets excited about. As He says the basic message is: He made known His will to you, and His will has to do with this thing called the Church, of which Jesus is over, and this program of what God’s going to do in the Church, and here’s the message: The message, put simply, is that you are needed. You are needed.

A lot of us feel like, “I don’t have much of a purpose.” He’s going to talk later in this book and throughout the New Testament about what? The body of Christ. You have certain gifts, you have a certain personality, in a certain time of history and he’s saying, “You’re like a piece of the puzzle.”

And you can say, “Well I’ve blown it,” or, “I don’t have much to offer.” Why do you think Jesus chose the people that He chose?

Rahab: prostitute. Moses: murderer. David: adulterer. James and John: anger management issues. Peter: a big mouth. Matthew: crook. I mean you talk, this is a great book! I mean it was like, whoa! These are my kind of people. Peter: betrayer!

You know what? You’re needed! You’re needed! God’s got a plan! It’s an eternal plan. You’re a piece of His divine puzzle. Don’t you believe that stuff that you’re not needed. You don’t have to be famous, you don’t have to have a public role.

But you need to discover what God made you to do, where He wants you to do it, what gifts that you have, and say, “You know what? According to Jesus, it’s the working of each individual part that causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.”

I don’t know about you but that gives me hope. That gives me direction. It gives me purpose.

The third thing that Jesus said, not only will He put your past behind you, not only does He have a purpose for your life today, Jesus promises you a positive future. Because some of us you know what rejection has done? “What’s the use?” “My future is going to be like my past. You know what? I was a loser as a kid, the first marriage didn’t work, I tried this, I tried that, I’ve been through a couple jobs or I got to the pinnacle of my career and people I trusted betrayed me. What’s the use?”

And so you know what? You play it safe, you play it passive, you don’t take risk. You just plan out your time and, it’s sort of the twenty-six-year-old version of playing video games.

Jesus promises a positive future. Notice we’re back to, “In Him,” this is the piece of wood, Jesus, and the bolt that’s you. And the rubber band of your new identity in Christ wrapping you, “in Him,” … also, we have obtained an inheritance. This is a real simple one.

“In Him we,” is the subject, “have obtained,” is the verb, “an inheritance.” Well, how did we get that inheritance? Was it just a last-minute thought? No.

“Having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will to the end or the purpose that we who were the first to hope in Christ should be to the praise of His glory.”

So, this was God’s plan. He wanted to give you an inheritance. He wanted you to know that there is a future, there is something that you receive now that is bought or purchased by someone else that has blessing and impact. And the message here is that you’re worthy. You’re worthy. You get an inheritance based on relationship.

I’m worthy because of my relationship. I’m not worthy because of my performance. You are worthy because of your relationship. You are not worthy because of your performance.

Now, what I can tell you is when you understand that you are worthy, you may find yourself reading the Bible more, praying longer, enjoying it. You may also find the alarm doesn’t go off and you don’t have time to read your Bible and you might find yourself saying, “Oh God, thank You that You love me. I missed a wonderful time with You but I don’t think I’m going to have a flat tire, I don’t think I’m going to have a bad day, I don’t think the thing is going to go bad because I didn’t have my quiet time. I’m related to my heavenly Father who loves me, who understands all, and I’m going to walk with You in the power of Your Spirit today.”

And I’m not going to try and figure out, “Okay, I guess I have to read four chapters tomorrow because I missed my two this morning.” That’s legalism.

And God’s heart, more than anything else, when you read the Bible He wants you to hear His voice. He wants you to hear His love. He wants you to hear His reproof. He would far more you read three verses and apply them because when you respond to the truth you get more light.

And if you don’t respond to the truth even the light you have gets taken away. It’s not a performance orientation and, boy, this is, you are looking at one performance oriented, driven, former workaholic, blech.

I know of what I speak, unfortunately. I’m making progress, one of the most glorious things that happens in your life is when you begin to believe that you’re free, that you’re needed, and you’re worthy apart from your performance. You know what it does? It frees you to receive love but it frees you to love people.

Paul was enamored with God’s grace. He was overwhelmed. In fact, if you really want to be humble, you catch glimpses of the overwhelming, unconditional, unmerited grace and favor of God. What you say is, “I am worthy but I feel so unworthy but You declared that I am, therefore I receive it.”

His final word to us, to overcome our rejection, is a word to those who feel like, “You know, I hear what you’re saying,” but here’s the lie. “I don’t want to get hurt again, I don’t want to risk again, I don’t want to step out like you’re saying.”

And so, Jesus makes this promise: “I will never, ever reject you.” Jesus makes a promise to you. He says, “I will never, ever reject you.”

Notice how this section opens. He’s still in this one, long sentence. Are you ready for it? “In Him you also,” here’s our part, there was a part, “after listening to the message of truth,” right?

You heard the gospel taught. “…the gospel of your salvation,” and then here’s something you did, “having also believed,” it’s in the perfect tense. That means that something happened in the past with ongoing implications into the future.

So, he’s speaking to this group of Christians in Ephesus and he says to them, “In Him after you heard the message, the gospel of salvation, having believed,” in the past, “you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise.”

And then he describes, in verse 14, what was this Holy Spirit of promise and why? “Who was given as a pledge,” literally, we get our idea for a deposit or earnest money, “who was given as a pledge of our inheritance with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession to the praise of His glory.”

The subject here is “you,” the verb is “having believed,” and then there is this phrase that you’re sealed. It’s what was accomplished. The word “sealed” here in the Roman world meant to finish a transaction, it was a sign of ownership, a sign of security, a document would be placed, and they would close the document, and then they would use some wax and then the seal, often in a ring, and it couldn’t be opened by anyone else. The seal is the authority, it’s finished, it’s done.

And what God is saying is that, “I will never, ever reject you because you are secure.” That’s the message. You are secure.

The Spirit of God came into your mortal body and you were sealed, and that’s the down payment. That’s the down payment, the earnest money that all the inheritance, all of heaven, all the promises, all the things that God’s going to do in all eternity for you. He says, “I’m going to give you a taste of it now. You’re sealed. You’re My child.”

With a view toward what? What’s it say? “With a view toward redemption.” You have been redeemed but we will be fully redeemed. And the earth will be redeemed. And there will be a new heaven, and a new earth, and Jesus, and no sun, and no moon. And there will be no need, because He will be the light and we will be with Him. And no sorrow, and no tears, and no rejection.

He lives inside of you. He lives inside of you. You’re a New Testament believer. The very person and presence and power of Jesus in the person of the Holy Spirit who, like the Son and the Father, is fully-God dwells in you. You talk about precious. You are His temple. You matter. You are worthy. You are free. You are needed.