When it comes to friendships and acquaintances, there are going to be times in your life when you do not feel like you fit in well. There may be times when you even feel excluded.
You’re going to find yourself in situations where your friends made plans that you weren’t invited to. You’re going to find yourself in situations where you were invited, but you just couldn’t be yourself among those plans – or among them.
Then there are going to be times when you are going to feel outright rejected – by the people who may at the time mean the most to you.
And in those times, you may end up blaming yourself.
You may end up asking yourself what is wrong with you.
And you are going to find it hard to put yourself out there again. You’re going to find it hard to trust another circle of friends again. You may also end up feeling like an outsider more often than you think.
You are going to end up believing that you have been cast aside….because of something you did, or worse…because of something you are.
But that is not the way God sees it.
Some of us may have that burden of always being left out. Some of us assume it about ourselves, but for some, its true.
Now, it is important to reflect on your own behavior and see if you are generally a kind, loving person, and if you’re not, that may be the issue right there.
But in other cases, if you feel cast aside because you feel you’re not charming enough, or funny enough, or popular enough, there’s good news for you.
Jesus hung out with these people.
And He didn’t call them outsiders. He didn’t look at them as people who were cast aside.
He looked at them as people who were set apart.
And you know what the other word for ‘set apart’ is?
Holy.
Maybe you are not cast aside too. Maybe you are set apart.
And as you might have imagined, it’s not an easy position to be in.
But It does mean you are set apart for something.
You are set apart for what is better.
You are set apart for great things.
You are set apart for good things.
Most importantly, you are set apart for Him.
Here’s a cover of ‘How Great Thou Art’, sung by Sushmita Majumdar. We pray it blesses you
