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I was asked to address the audience for an online speaking engagement, and the subject was identity in Christ. I became nervous, but not because I didn’t know about the subject, but because I’ve struggled with my identity in Christ for years.
I’d look up and realize that I had put my identity in my degree, or a relationship, my weight, or my ministry and always had to reaffirm my identity in Christ. I had to denounce all things and reestablish my identity in Him.
Growing up not Christian, no one ever tells you to check your idols or where you’ve placed your worth, or put your value in. I realized that my entire identity since I was a young girl had to do with boys, pleasing others, and the sports I played.
Quickly in college I realized that all these external things I was placing my identity in didn’t matter because they would all fail me. The relationship, the degree, the sorority, and the friendships. Everything crumbled, so I had no more of a reason to attach my sense of self-worth to these things but instead attached myself to God.
The issues that plagued my mind, my nights, my feelings and desires all came from this false identity in the natural things. I had to realize that my identity needed to be grounded and founded in the promises of God. My identity wasn’t meant to be in my weight or the numbers on social media, it wasn’t in my abstinence journey, or even in my ministry. My identity was only meant to be in God, and when I embraced that, I realized I was safe all along.
I didn’t have to attach my identity to other things to feel safe, valued, or worthy, but if I chose daily to keep it attached to God then I would be made whole. I would be set free in my mind from the daily rat race and able to live an abundant life in God.
I never felt safe from a young girl even to a grown woman. This inner fear of abandonment and never being safe always made me run to outside sources to find safety. In one season it was relationships, in another season it was emotionally eating, and in yet another season it was drinking and partying.
I share all of this today to encourage you to take inventory on the places you’ve attached your identity, and instead of sitting in another day of confusion and torment, attach your identity to God and experience the peace of Him.
Grab your identity back.
You are not what has happened to you, you are not your mistakes.
You are worthy and valued in the sight of God, and in Him you are safe, you are secure, you are powerful, you are beautiful, you are loved, and you are the best you’ve ever been up to this point.
Keep Going and Keep Growing in God. True Identity in God is when you need nothing else to feel safe, worthy, valued, or accomplished but all that comes from Christ Jesus.
Weekly Scripture
"The thief comes to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly"
John 10:10
