I’m sitting here on my couch and here they come—those thoughts again attacking my identity. They wash over me and threaten to pull me under like the rip current of the ocean at high tide.
You have nothing good to say.
Who are you to be writing this blog?
You are a hypocrite and a liar.
Are you really asking God to forgive you again?
You are a disappointment.
You are an awful wife, daughter, sister and friend.
When are you going to get your act together, Charity, and stop letting God and others down?
Charity, you are defined by what you look like. Don’t gain weight. Don’t be weak. Compare yourself to everyone. You must look like what this world says is beautiful or no one will accept you.
God could never forgive you for your past.
You deserve to feel pain, loneliness, shame and guilt for what you have done.
You are probably thinking, Isn’t this supposed to be an encouraging blog? Well, yes it is. Hang in there with me until the end and I pray by the Spirit’s guidance you will be encouraged.
You see, these lies flood my mind trying to drown me. And, I know I’m not the only one who experiences this.
But, do you know what?
I’m so done believing these lies about myself.
I’m so done believing them because I am so ready for more of my God. But that can’t happen until I trust Him at His word and believe I am who He says and not who the voice in my head tells me.
Identity has been something I have struggled with my whole life. I actually think we all struggle with it just in different ways. For me, it was anorexia nervosa. When I was in middle school, I was obsessed with being skinny. I starved myself to the point of almost being hospitalized. If it weren’t for my parents loving and firm hand in my life, I don’t know where I’d be.
One doesn’t simply get over those thoughts though. I still struggle to hold onto truth and put God above my body image. The battle is real friends, but my fear is that we have forgotten that it is won. Even more though, I fear that the Bride of Christ has forgotten that the Conqueror lives inside us! I fear we take too lightly the identity He has bought for us and the privileges and power that it entails.
Do we really believe Christ has given us life and purified, redeemed and forgiven us completely?
Or, has our shame and guilt so deceived us that we refuse to walk in who God says we are as believers in Christ?
Oh, dear brother and sister, God has so much more He wants to show you about Himself, but you must believe who He says you are and not who you say you are.
Until we know who we are to God and how He sees us, we can’t begin to love others well. It isn’t selfish to ask God to show us how He sees us. His greatest desire is to speak our identity over us and for us to believe it, so we can love Him more and help others love Him more too.
It is an idea that is counter to the culture of many churches. But, what if our love for God is supposed to produce a true and genuine love for ourselves? What if in order to love others more we first have to “love ourselves?” Loving ourselves not through the lens of the world, but through the lens of God, through loving and cherishing who God says we are because of Christ. Once we begin to grasp our new identity in Christ, it pulls us into deeper love for the Father and gives us a desire for others to know their true identity in Christ as well.
Friends, it starts with Christ and all that He has done for us. Then we must receive His identity which brings us even deeper into Love Himself.
A huge reason that I wanted to start this blog was because I am so tired of seeing myself and others continue to believe terrible lies about themselves. I am so angry at the satan for making people blind to their true identity and blind to the deep, deep love that God has for them. I asked God one day this past summer, God, what can I do? and immediately the thought, Start a blog! came to mind. And so, that is what Keagan and I are doing.
Since I feel the LORD laying on my heart an ache for His children to know their true identity, I have decided to camp out on this topic for a few weeks. Ever Friday, I’d love it if you join me in Colossians as we dig deep into Christ and who He declares us to be.
Please reach out if you have any comments, any questions or any encouragement to share. Let us be the Body of Christ who walks hand-in-hand by the unity of the Spirit.
Thank you for allowing us to serve and encourage you today. If this post was an encouragement to you in any way, please let us know and consider sharing this post to encourage someone else.