How God Uses Rejections

GCD Newsletter – Thursday, July 4, 2024

Today, nearly two hundred people will come to my front yard for the start of our annual neighborhood parade.

This Fourth of July Parade has been going on for over twenty-five years, and our family has been in charge the for the last ten. We have a bounce house, a one-mile fun run, as well as police escorts and fire trucks. Then we eat hot dogs, hamburgers, and watermelon. To be honest, it’s all a little over the top—almost a caricature of American culture more than the real thing. But we love it anyway. And for the last few years I’ve mentioned how I work at a nearby church and shared a prayer. This year, our church is helping serve the lunch, and we hope to invite families to our vacation Bible school, which will happen soon. We often get several people to visit our church after the event, and I hope this week will be the same.

I mention this because sometimes lots and lots of work goes into a project to make it special and that event or project goes great. And sometimes it doesn’t. Last week on the website, our staff writer Brittany Allen wrote about how God has used rejected book proposals in her life. I’ve had my share of book proposal rejections, and I know they take lots and lots of work, so I feel her pain. But I have also experienced—in the good providence of God—some of the same blessings and lessons she shares with readers. Whether you are a writer or not, I suspect you’d be blessed reading her words.

We also had a book excerpt from popular author Mark Vroegop and an article from Adam Salloum, a regular contributor, who wrote about the Sabbath. Yesterday, our staff writer Chrys Jones wrote some honest but encouraging words about revamping our prayer lives.

Thanks for reading,

Benjamin Vrbicek
Managing Editor
Gospel-Centered Discipleship

Last Week at GCDiscipleship.com

A Simple Way to Revamp Your Prayer Life
By Chrys Jones

More often than I’d like to admit, my daily call to worship involves scrolling rather than Scripture, prating instead of prayer.

Remember the Sabbath to Keep Us Humble
By Adam Salloum

We often fear that if we can’t work on the Sabbath, we’ll never get ahead. Perhaps—even worse—we fear we’ll fall behind. And staring those fears in the face might be part of the point.

Waiting Pushes Our Limits—And That Is Part of God’s Good Design
By Mark Vroegop

In this excerpt from the recently released Waiting Isn't a Waste, author Mark Vroegrop reminds readers that God commends waiting as something valuable and good.

3 Ways God Uses Rejected Book Ideas
By Brittany Allen

Writing involves a lot of death—death to your darlings, death to your ideas, death to yourself. Again and again, we have to slay our pride and lay to rest sentences, paragraphs, and even full-blown book ideas.