I remember in my days of working with orphans, there were kids who really “received” the love and empowerment we tried to give them.  Yet there were others that no matter how much attention, help, or love we tried to show them, receiving it was something they had no concern in doing…

This was one of the main reasons we had such a high “turnover rate” among the staff, because many of them couldn’t get over the “hurdle” of being rejected, after pouring out their love and affection.  In having to learn how to handle it myself, what I ended up sharing with them, is that you cannot control their response to your love, you can only give it.

Many times we as Christians struggle to keep an “open heart”, because we have people who have no interest in responding to the love we give them.  So in response we “close” our hearts, and by doing so we can wrongly think of one of two things, 1) that there maybe something wrong with the love I give (which is possible), 2) or they don’t deserve it, so let me keep it to myself (not gospel).  But we forget the last possibility, in that they could have a problem with receiving love?

So there are times you have to disregard, or “shake the dust off your feet” over people’s refusal to receive the love of God (Hebrews 8:9).  Because like many of the good staff people we lost, they blamed themselves for their love being rejected, when many times it was the child’s inability to “receive” was the problem.

Challenge yourself, and ask whether or not you are receiving the love of Christ?  To be a Christian and not seek to walk with Jesus and stay faithful to the covenant He died for, maybe a sign that we have trouble receiving the love of God?