FEELING LEFT OUT
Definition: Related to feelings of loneliness, isolation, or rejection; feeling left out is an awareness, either real or imagined, of being excluded from the company or activities of others.
1. Jesus sometimes felt left out, too. So He knows how it feels.
Matthew 26:55,56b In that same hour said Jesus to the multitudes, Are ye come out as against a thief with swords and staves for to take Me? I sat daily with you teaching in the temple, and ye laid no hold on Me. 56b Then all the disciples forsook Him, and fled.
Luke 23:49 [Jesus saw His friends and disciples standing afar off, as He died on the cross] And all His acquaintance, and the women that followed Him from Galilee, stood afar off, beholding these things. (See also Mark 15:40,41)
John 16:32 Behold, the hour cometh, yea, is now come, that ye shall be scattered, every man to his own, and shall leave Me alone: and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me.
2. Feeling left out can drive us closer to the Lord and help us appreciate His love and fellowship.
Job 19:13-21 [Job experienced horrendous trials during his affliction, when he did lose many of his friends, yet the Enemy no doubt aggravated things by making him think he’s lost it all, when in actuality he hadn’t] He [the Lord] hath put my brethren far from me, and mine acquaintance are verily estranged from me. 14 My kinsfolk have failed, and my familiar friends have forgotten me. 15 They that dwell in mine house, and my maids, count me for a stranger: I am an alien in their sight. 16 I called my servant, and he gave me no answer; I intreated him with my mouth. 17 My breath is strange to my wife, though I intreated for the children’s sake of mine own body. … 19 All my inward friends abhorred me: and they whom I loved are turned against me. [This wasn’t completely true, as he still had very dear, close friends, who were trying to understand his grief and help him] 20 My bone cleaveth to my skin and to my flesh, and I am escaped with the skin of my teeth. 21 Have pity upon me, have pity upon me, O ye my friends; for the hand of God hath touched me. [But in his misery, Job turned to God and began to have renewed faith] … For I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that He shall stand at the Latter Day upon the earth: 26 And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God.
Psalm 38:10,11,15 [David, lonely and afflicted, feeling separated from his loved ones, draws close to God] My heart panteth, my strength faileth me: as for the light of mine eyes, it also is gone from me. 11 My lovers and my friends stand aloof from my sore; and my kinsmen stand afar off. … 15 In Thee, O Lord, do I hope: Thou wilt hear, O Lord my God.
Proverbs 18:24b There is a friend [including Jesus, our Best Friend] that sticketh closer than a brother.
Matthew 28:20b Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. [See also Isaiah 44:21b]
John 14:18 [The Lord is our ever-present Comforter] I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.
Romans 8:38,39 For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, 39 Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
2 Timothy 4:16a,17a At my first answer no man stood with me, but all men forsook me: … 17a Notwithstanding the Lord stood with me, and strengthened me.
Hebrews 13:5b For He hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.
3. Feeling left out can sometimes help us learn compassion for others who have the same trial.
2 Corinthians 1:4 [God] comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.
Exodus 23:9b For ye know the heart of a stranger, seeing ye were strangers in the land of Egypt.
Luke 6:31 And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise.
4. Feelings of being left out are often exaggerated by the Enemy.
Psalm 22:6,7a [At times David felt like all had left him, but that wasn’t really the case. He said:] But I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised of the people. 7a All they that see me laugh me to scorn.
Psalm 31:12; 88:18; 102:7 [Again David says, when in the middle of heavy trials:] I am forgotten as a dead man out of mind: I am like a broken vessel. 88:18 Lover and friend hast thou put far from me, and mine acquaintance into darkness. 102:7 I watch, and am as a sparrow alone upon the house top.
Psalm 142:4 [No matter how badly David felt, each time he turned to the Lord for refuge] I looked on my right hand, and beheld, but there was no man that would know me: refuge failed me; no man cared for my soul. 5 I cried unto Thee, O Lord: I said, Thou art my refuge and my portion in the land of the living.
5. Sometimes it’s simply a matter of needing to communicate our feelings to the others involved.
Proverbs 27:19 As in water face answereth to face, so the heart of man to man. [See also Psalm 33:15]
James 4:2b [Don’t be afraid to ask for help] Ye have not, because ye ask not.
Hebrews 13:16a But to do good and to communicate forget not.
1 John 1:7 But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin.
6. Sometimes we may alienate ourselves from others by our own mistakes and sins.
Psalm 31:10-12,14 [David feels isolated in his sins and his distress, but ends up turning more to the Lord for help and comfort] For my life is spent with grief, and my years with sighing: my strength faileth because of mine iniquity, and my bones are consumed. 11 I was a reproach among all mine enemies, but especially among my neighbours, and a fear to mine acquaintance: they that did see me without fled from me. … 14 But I trusted in Thee, O Lord: I said, Thou art my God.
Proverbs 18:19 [When we’ve offended someone, it can take real effort to win back their friendship] A brother offended is harder to be won than a strong city: and their contentions are like the bars of a castle.
Matthew 5:23,24 [Jesus taught the importance of reconciliation among brethren] Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee; 24 Leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift.
7. If you’re feeling left out, get out of yourself and think of others. Or if you see someone who is feeling left out, go out of your way to spend time with them.
Romans 12:15 Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep.
1 Corinthians 9:22 To the weak became I as weak, that I might gain the weak: I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some.
1 Corinthians 10:33 [This verse refers to pleasing others in a way that pleases God, rather than manpleasing, which is pleasing others in order to please yourself] I please all men in all things, not seeking mine own profit, but the profit of many, that they may be saved.
1 Corinthians 12:25,26 [Lord help us to see the need and give special love and attention to those who need it] That there should be no schism in the body; but that the members should have the same care one for another. 26 And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it.
Philippians 2:4 Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others.
8. Seek to be a friend and you’ll find friends everywhere.
Proverbs 11:25 The liberal [generous, outgoing] soul shall be made fat: and he that watereth shall be watered also himself.
Proverbs 18:24a A man that hath [or would have] friends must shew himself friendly.
Luke 6:38 Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again.
9. If you feel left out by the worldly system and worldly people, you’re in good company.
Isaiah 53:3 [Jesus was not called of God to be “popular.”] He is despised and rejected of men; a Man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from Him; He was despised, and we esteemed Him not. [See also John 1:11]
Matthew 21:42a Jesus saith unto them, Did ye never read in the Scriptures, The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner.
John 5:43 I am come in My Father’s name, and ye receive Me not: if another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive.
Luke 6:22,23,26 Blessed are ye, when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you from their company, and shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man’s sake. 23 Rejoice ye in that day, and leap for joy: for, behold, your reward is great in Heaven: for in the like manner did their fathers unto the prophets…. 26 [Watch out about trying to become too popular!] Woe unto you, when all men shall speak well of you! For so did their fathers to the false prophets.
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