Voices from Around the World

When God’s Yes Becomes Louder Than Every No

• Obediah's Global Movement

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Some aches are loud, others whisper. The hush of “not enough” can trail us into rooms, relationships, and even prayer, shaping choices we make and the stories we tell about who we are. Today we sit with that ache, name it, and dismantle it at the root—not by pretending it doesn’t hurt, but by locating the deeper strategy behind it and answering with a louder truth.

We walk through how rejection can begin long before language, in families, schools, and communities that teach us to earn love or brace for loss. Then we shift the lens: identity in Christ is not soft comfort, it’s a weapon that disarms the lie that someone else’s no can outrank God’s yes. We explore the psychology of unworthiness—patterns like overgiving, shrinking, and self-sabotage—and show how the nervous system learns to expect pain. From there, faith becomes a bridge: prayer as alignment, forgiveness as release, and identity restoration as inheritance rather than achievement.

You’ll hear practical ways to live from belovedness: choosing relationships that honor your worth, setting clean boundaries, receiving care without suspicion, and stepping into spaces where you once shrank. We close with a guided meditation to release old narratives and root your heart in steady truth: fearfully and wonderfully made, chosen, and held. If you’ve felt defined by who walked away, come breathe, reframe the story, and let God’s yes grow louder than every no.

If this moved you, follow the show, share it with a friend who needs it, and leave a review to help these stories find the people they’re meant to heal.

SPEAKER_00:

Welcome to Voices Around the World. A soulful space where stories breathe, borders blur, and humanity speaks. This isn't just a podcast, it is a gathering, a circle of voices intimate, courageous, and deeply personal, echoing from every corner of the globe. Through heartfelt interviews and reflective solo episodes, we explore the lived experiences that shape our shared world, the struggles that stretch us, the triumphs that lift us, and the quiet moments that remind us we belong. Each episode invites you into conversation with artists, healers, activists, educators, and everyday visionaries, people whose perspectives are rooted in culture, resilience, and truth. And frequently your host steps into the silence alone, offering gentle reflections on global issues through the lens of compassion, curiosity, and care. This is a space for listening deeply, for honoring differences, and for finding connection and complexity. Because in a world that often divides, voices from around the world dares to weave us together, one story at a time. I'm your host, Obadiah, and today we're stepping into a conversation that sits right at the center of so many people's quiet suffering, rejection and unworthiness, that ache that whispers, you're not enough, that shadow that follows you into rooms, relationships, opportunities, and even your prayer life. Today, we're not just tiptoeing around it, we're confronting it, we're naming it, and by the end of this episode, we're breaking this power. Because rejection is not your identity, unworthiness is not your inheritance, and the God who formed you has never once reconsidered you. So I invite you to settle in, to take a breath as we dive into this episode. Rejection often feels like a moment, right? A breakup, a betrayal, a closed door, a cold shoulder. But its root reaches far deeper than the event itself. Rejection is a wound that can begin forming long before we ever have language for it. It can start in childhood, in the subtle ways we learn to understand love, safety, and belonging. It can begin in families where affection was inconsistent, where emotional needs were overlooked, or where love felt conditional. It can be shaped by teachers who dismissed our brilliance, communities that didn't understand our identity, or relationships that mishandled our heart. But beneath the emotional experiences lies something even deeper, a spiritual root. Rejection is not just a feeling. It is a spiritual strategy designed to distort the truth of who we are. It tries to convince you that your worth is determined by the acceptance or rejection of people. It tries to make you believe that someone else's no is more powerful than God's yes. But here's the truth that breaks that lie wide open. God's yes is louder, louder than the abandon, louder than betrayal, louder than silence, and louder than every moment someone failed to see you. Your worth doesn't come from who walked away. It comes from the one who formed you. Scripture tells us in Psalms 1309 verses 14, I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made, not accidentally made, not conditionally made, but wonderfully made. And in Ephesians chapter 2, verses 10, we are reminded, for we are God's masterpiece, created in Christ Jesus to do good works. A masterpiece, not a mistake, a creation of intention, not an afterthought. Rejection tries to make you forget that. It tries to make you chase validation, approval, and belonging from people who were never meant to define you. It tries to make you believe that your value fluctuates based on how others treat you. But the identity in Christ tells a different story. Identity in Christ says you are chosen, you are adopted, you are loved with an everlasting love, you are accepted and beloved, you are known fully and still called worthy. Before anyone had the chance to reject you, God had already chosen you. Before anyone could label you, God had already named you. Before anyone could wound you, God had already claimed you. This is why redefining self-worth is not emotional work. It is spiritual work. It is the shift from seeking external validation to internalizing divine truth. It is the shift from asking, do they want me? to declaring God had already chosen me. It is the shift from performing for acceptance to resting in your own identity. You are not valuable because how people see your worth. You are valuable because God placed worth inside of you. You are not worthy because someone finally recognized your beauty. You are worthy because God crafted you with purpose. You are not enough because someone said so. You are enough because God made you so. Rejection may have shaped parts of your story, but it does not get to define you. Your identity, your identity is rooted in Christ, unchanging, unshakable, and unconditional. And when you begin to see yourself through God's eyes, the grip of rejection begins to loosen, the lies begin to unravel, the wounds begin to heal, and the truth begins to rise. You are a masterpiece. You are chosen, you are loved, you are enough, and you always have been. When we begin to understand that your worth is anchored in God's yes, something profound becomes clear. Rejection has never been about your value. It has always been about your identity. The spirit of rejection doesn't simply want you to feel hurt. It wants you to feel disconnected, disconnected from God, disconnected from truth, disconnected from the identity that heaven has already spoken over you. Because once you know who you are, you become dangerous to the darkness. This is why rejection often strikes early. This is why it repeats. This is why it shows up in patterns and cycles and familiar emotional echoes. It is not random. It is strategic. The enemy doesn't waste energy attacking what is insignificant. It attacks what carries purpose. It attacks what carries calling, it attacks what carries divine assignment. And the most efficient way to derail a calling is to disorient the identity of the one carrying it. If the enemy can convince you that you are unworthy, he doesn't need to stop your purpose. You'll stop yourself. If he can make you believe you are unlovable, you'll withdraw from the very relationships meant to heal you. If he can make you believe you are unwanted, you'll silence your voice before you ever speak. If he can make you believe you are not enough, you'll shrink in rooms you were meant to influence. Rejection is not simply emotional pain, it is identity warfare. And this is why Scripture speaks so fiercely about who you are. When God calls you, chosen, beloved, set apart, a royal priesthood, a masterpiece, the apple of his eyes, he is not often poetic comfort. He is declaring spiritual truth that dismantles the lies of rejection. Identity in Christ is not a soft idea, it is a weapon. Because when you know who you are, rejection loses its authority. It may still hurt, but it can no longer define you. It may still sting, but it can no longer shape your worth. It may still echo, but it can no longer rewrite your identity. This is why the enemy fights identity so fiercely, because identity is the foundation of faith. Identity is the anchor of purpose. Identity is the birthplace of confidence, courage, and spiritual authority. And when we begin to internalize the truth that God or God's masterpiece, fearfully made, wonderfully crafted, intentionally designed, the spirit of rejection begins to lose its grip. Because now you're not fighting for worthiness. You're fighting from wordiness. You're not trying to earn love. You're living from love. You're not chasing acceptance. You're rooted in acceptance. You're not begging for belonging. You're walking in belonging. This is the spiritual battle. Rejection tries to disorient what God has already declared. Faith restores what rejection tried to steal. Identity reclaims what the enemy tried to bury. And once you begin to see yourself through God's eyes, the lies of rejection begin to sound unfamiliar. They lose their authority, they lose their volume, they lose their power. Because God's yes is much louder. And once you hear it, I mean truly hear it, you cannot unhear it. When rejection takes roots, especially early, subtle, or repeatedly, it doesn't just wound a heart. It begins to shape the way a person sees themselves, others, and even God. Over time, rejection becomes more than experience. It becomes a lens, a filter, a familiar emotional rhythm that the body learns to anticipate. This is where the psychology of unworthiness and a spirit of rejection intertwine. Unworthiness is not something we are born with. It is something that we learn, something we internalize through repeated messages spoken or unspoken, that tells us that we are too much, not enough, or somehow fundamentally lacking. And because the human heart is wired for belonging, any disruption in love or acceptance becomes deeply formative. Let's think of a child who grows up feeling unseen. They learn to dim their light. A teenager who is mocked or misunderstood learns to silence their voice. An adult who experienced betrayal learns to brace for disappointment. And a soul that has been mishandled learns to expect abandonment. These emotional patterns become survival strategies. We begin to overexplain to avoid being misunderstood. Overgiving to earn affection, shrinking to avoid being too much, staying silent to keep the peace, accepting less because we fear losing more. Sabotaging opportunities because we don't feel deserving. And feeling uncomfortable when someone treats you with genuine care. These behaviors are not signs of weakness. They are signs of wounds. But here's the spiritual truth. You were never created to survive rejection. You were created to live from identity. This is where the spiritual and psychological worlds meet. The spirit of rejection whisper lies that the nervous system begins to believe. It says, you're unlovable, you're unwanted, you're not enough, you're too much, and you don't belong. And the body responds as if these lies are truth, tightening, shrinking, bracing, withdrawing. But the moment you begin to embrace your divine identity, something shifts. The lies begin to lose their authority. The nervous system begins to unlearn patterns of fear. The heart begins to soften, and the soul begins to breathe again. Because identity in Christ does not just heal the spirit, it rewires the mind, it reconditions the heart. It retrains the body to expect love instead of rejection. When God calls you, fearfully and wonderfully made, his masterpiece, his chosen, loved with an everlasting love, he is not speaking to your wounds. He is speaking to your essence. He is reminding you of who you were before the world mishandled you, before people misunderstood you, before rejection tried to rename you. Unworthiness began to unravel when truth becomes louder than memory, when God's voice becomes louder than the voices of your past, when divine identity becomes more familiar than emotional survival. This is the journey of healing, not pretending the wounds don't exist, but allowing God's truth to speak louder than the wounds ever did. And slowly, gently, and powerfully, the heart begins to believe again, the soul begins to trust again, the body begins to relax again, the mind begins to release old narratives, and the spirit begins to rise. Because you were never meant to live from unworthiness, you were meant to live from belovedness. And belovedness is your truest identity. By the time rejection has shaped your emotions, your patterns, and your nervous system, it can feel like unworthiness is simply who you are. But that's the lie, that's the distortion, that's the residue of wound, not the truth of your identity. And this is where faith becomes not just comforting, but revolutionary. Faith is the force that interrupts the lie. Faith is the light that exposes the wound. Faith is the truth that dismantled the spirit of rejection at its root. Faith is not about pretending you're okay. It's about remembering who you are when your feelings forget. Faith is the bridge between the wound and the healing, between the lie and the truth, between the identity rejection tried to bury and the identity God already declared. And faith works through powerful spiritual tools. Prayer, forgiveness, and identity restoration. Prayer is not performance. Prayer is not ritual. Prayer is not a place where you beg God to love you. Prayer is alignment. Prayer is remembrance. Prayer is identity work. Prayer is where you return to the voice that has always known you, the voice that spoke you into existence, the voice that called you good, the voice that named you before the world ever had the chance to label you. When you pray, you are not just trying to convince God of your worth. You are allowing God to convince you of it. Because prayer breaks the internal agreements you've made with rejection. Prayer dismantles the lies that you've carried for so many years. Prayer re-inkers your heart and the divine truth. Prayer is where you say, God, show me who I am beyond what I've been through. Show me who I am beyond who walked away. Show me who I am beyond the wounds I've normalized. And God answers, not with shame, not with disappointment, but with identity. The next one is forgiveness. Forgiveness is one of the most misunderstood spiritual tools. Forgiveness is not saying what they did was okay. Forgiveness is saying what they did would no longer define me. Forgiveness is not reconciliation. Forgiveness is release. Forgiveness is not weakness. Forgiveness is spiritual strength. Forgiveness is not about the other person. Forgiveness is about your freedom. Because here is the truth. Rejection wounds you once, but unforgiveness wounds you repeatedly. Unforgiveness keeps you tied to the moment you are hurt. It keeps you emotionally tittered to the person who wounded you. It keeps the lie alive. But forgiveness, forgiveness breaks the chain. Forgiveness severs the spiritual tie. Forgiveness says, I am no longer caring what was never mine to hold. A decision to reclaim your identity. A decision to reclaim your peace. And when you forgive, you create space for God to heal what rejection tried to destroy. The last one is embracing your identity. Identity is not something you earn, it is something you inherit. Before anyone had the chance to reject you, God had already chosen you. Before anyone can label you, God had already named you. And before anyone can wound you, God had already claimed you. You are God's masterpiece. You are chosen. You are loved with an everlasting love. These are not metaphors, these are not poetic comforts, these are spiritual realities. Identity in Christ is the antidote to rejection. Identity in Christ is the healing of unworthiness. So when we embrace your divine identity, you stop living from the wounds of your past and start living from the truth of your creation. You stop chasing validation. You stop performing for acceptance. You stop shrinking to fit into places that were never meant to hold you. You begin to walk differently. You begin to speak differently. You begin to choose differently. And you begin to love differently, including yourself. Because now you're not living from rejection. You're living from belovedness. You're not living from fear. You're living from truth. You're not living from wounds. You're living from worth. This is the power of faith. This is the power of identity. And this is the power of God's yes. It doesn't just comfort you, it transforms you. And by the time you've traced the roots of rejection, comforted the spiritual battle around identity, and began the healing work of prayer, forgiveness, and divine remembrance, something powerful begins to happen inside of you. A shift, a reorientation, a quiet but undeniable awakening. You begin to realize that rejection may have shaped parts of your story, but it was never meant to define your identity. You begin to see that unworthiness was never your truth. It was a wound. And wounds, when brought into the presence of God, do not stay wounds. They become testimonies. This is where the journey turns from healing into transformation. This is where you begin to rewrite the narrative of your life. Not by erasing the past, but by reclaiming your identity within it. Because here's the truth. You are not the sum of who walked away. You are not the echo of who didn't choose you. You are not the reflection of who couldn't love you. You are not the memory of who mishandled you. You are the masterpiece of the one who formed you. You are the beloved of the one who named you. You are the chosen of the one who called you. And you are the creation of the one who never reconsidered you. Rewriting your narrative begins with truth telling, not about what happened, but about who you are. It means speaking truth over yourself even when your emotions haven't caught up yet. It means challenging every lie that rises up from old wounds. It means refusing to let the voice of rejection narrate your future. Rewriting your narrative can look like this. Choosing relationships that honor your worth instead of tolerating those that disminish it. Setting boundaries that protect your peace and preserve your identity. Allowing yourself to receive love without suspicion or self-sabotage. Walking boldly into spaces where you once shrank. Letting go of people who benefited from your insecurity. Reclaiming your voice in places where silence once felt safer, and showing up as your full self without apology or fear. This is not arrogance, this is alignment. This is not pride, this is identity. This is not rebellion, this is restoration. Because when you begin to live from your divine identity, you stop navigating the world as someone who's trying to earn love. You begin navigating as someone who already has it. You stop chasing acceptance. You stop performing belonging. You stop shrinking to fit into places that were never meant to hold you. Instead, you begin to live from a place of spiritual confidence. Not the loud, boastful kind, but the quiet, steady, grounded assurance that comes from knowing who you are in God. You begin to walk differently, you begin to speak differently, you begin to choose differently, and you begin to love differently, including yourself. Because now you're not living from injury, you're living from identity, you're not living from fear, you're living from truth, you're not living from rejection, you're living from belovedness. And belovedness is not fragile. Belovedness is not conditional. Belovedness is not earned. Belovedness is not revoked. Belovedness is your birthright. Belovedness is your inheritance, and belovedness is your truest name. This is the narrative you were always meant to live from. This is the story God wrote before the world ever had the chance to wound you. This is the identity that rejection tried and failed to bury. And as you step into this truth, you begin to realize something profound. That you are not who rejection said you were. And that truth, that truth is final. I now invite you to pause and join me in a guided and reflective meditation. Before we begin, I invite you to find a comfortable position. Let your shoulders soften. Let your jaw unclench. Let your breath deepen. This is your moment, your pause, your sacred space to return to yourself and to the God who has never left you. Take a slow deep breath in and release. Again, take a slow deep breath in and release. Let the noise of the day fall away. Let the expectations fall away. Let the pressure fall away. Let the old narratives fall away. You are safe here. You are held here. You are seen here. Now, gently place a hand over your heart. Feel the warmth beneath your palm. Feel the steady rhythm of your breath. Feel the life inside you. The life God breathed into you with intention, with purpose, and with love. As you breathe, imagine every inhale drawing in truth. And every exhale releasing the lies rejection ever tried to plant. Inhale truth. Exhale lies. Inhale identity. Exhale unworthiness. Inhale belovedness. Exhale fear. Now in the quiet of your spirit, hear these words not as ideas, not as affirmations, but as truth. You are fearfully and wonderfully made. You are my masterpiece. You are chosen. You are loved with an everlasting love. You are mine. Let those words settle into places where rejection once lived. Let them fill the cracks, let them soothe the wounds, and let them rewrite the story. With each breath, imagine the spirit of rejection losing its grip, loosening, dissolving, fading like dust in the wind. You are not who rejection said you were. You are who God says you are. Now imagine the soft warm light beginning to glow in the center of your chest, a light that represents your divine identity. Watch it expand with every breath. Watch it grow stronger, brighter, steadier. This is the truth of who you are. This is the truth that cannot be taken from you. This is the truth that existed before the world ever had the chance to wound you. Let this light move through your body, down your arms, into your hands, through your spine, into your belly, down your legs and into your feet. Let it feel every part of you with warmth, with clarity, and with belonging. Now gently bring to mind someone or something that once made you feel unworthy. Not to reopen the womb, but to release it. See that memory in front of you, see it clearly. And now imagine God placing his hand between you and that memory, shielding you, covering you, separating you from the pain. Hear him say this does not define you. This does not name you. This does not diminish you. You are mine. Let the memory drift away like a leaf carried by a gentle stream, moving further and further from your spirit. Now breathe. Fill the space that opens inside of you when a weight lifts. Fill the freedom that rises when a lie dissolves. Feel the truth that emerges when a wound releases. You are not rejected, you are redeemed. You are not unworthy, you are beloved. You are not forgotten, you are held. You are not broken, you are becoming. Take one more deep breath in. Hold it and release. As you return to your day, carry this truth with you. Your identity is not fragile. Your worth is not conditional. Your belonging is not up for debate. You are who God says you are, and that truth, and that truth is final. When you're ready, gently open your eyes, return to your space, and the present moment, return to your body, return to your breath, and return to your life as the masterpiece you already are. I thank you for sharing this sacred space with me today. Thank you for allowing yourself to slow down, breathe deeply, and step into the truth of who you are, not who rejection tried to convince you to be, but who God has already known you to be. As you rise from this moment and return to the rhythm of your day, I want you to carry something with you. You are not walking backward into your life as the same person who pressed play on this episode. Something shifted, something softened, something awakened. You've peeled back layers that were never yours to hold. You released lies that were never meant to define you. You've made room for truth, real truth to take root. And that truth is this. You are chosen, you are cherished, you are crafted with intention, you are held with everlasting love, you are God's masterpiece, not in theory, but in reality. Rejection may have been part of your story, but it is not the author of your identity. Unworthiness may have echoed through your past, but it does not get to shape your future. You belong, you matter, you carry divine worth that cannot be revoked, diminished, or negotiated. As you move forward, be gentle with yourself. Healing is not a single moment, it is a journey, a journey of remembering, releasing, and returning to the truth again and again. Let today be a marker, a turning point where you begin to live from identity, not injury, from belovedness, not fear, from truth not memory, and when old thoughts rise up, when a voice of rejection tries to whisper again, when unworthiness tries to creep back in, I want you to pause and breathe and remember God's yes is louder, God's love is deeper, God's truth is stronger, and God's claim on you is final. Thank you for spending this time with me. Thank you for choosing healing. Thank you for choosing the truth. Thank you for choosing yourself. Until next time, take care of your spirit, honor your boundaries, and walk boldly in the identity that has always been yours. Chosen, loved, wordy, whole. I'm your host Obadiah, and this is voices around the world. Until next time.