Any time you are overwhelmed by a situation, or emotions get triggered, journaling is a great way to get all of those thoughts out of your head so you can process them more clearly. When we allow negative thoughts to swirl around in our heads, a bad experience can feel exponentially worse than it really is. Just the act of writing it all down often helps us put things in a better perspective.
Any time you are overwhelmed by a situation, or emotions get triggered, journaling is a great way to get all of those thoughts out of your head so you can process them more clearly. When we allow negative thoughts to swirl around in our heads, a bad experience can feel exponentially worse than it really is. Just the act of writing it all down often helps us put things in a better perspective.
As a young girl, there were times I didn’t feel beautiful at all. In fact, when I was 12 years old I went and hid under the dining room table and just cried one night. I didn’t think anyone liked me. I thought I was ugly.
My mom came over to comfort me and shared this verse:
“Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.”
– Proverbs 31:30
Do you know that many of us suffer from a case of mistaken identity? We don’t often consider what we think defines us. But think consider what you think really defines you for a moment. For many of us, our identity is rooted in our upbringing, what people have said about us, our accomplishments, our failures, our financial status, and the events and experiences we have been through.
For a long time my identity was tangled up in the events of my life and the strategies I had developed to cope with what I had been through. My parents divorced when I was 11. As the oldest of five kids I decided it was my responsibility to help my mom. Since we struggled financially, I also decided I had to start earning money right away, and work toward a career that would allow me to be financially stable and independent. The words that I thought described me were damaged, abandoned, insecure, struggling, survivor, responsible, independent, among others.
For the most part, what we think of ourselves tends to define what we allow and won’t allow in our lives, for better or worse. When we think we are broken and damaged we are more likely to allow people to take advantage of us, and to be tempted to do things that are self-destructive. If we’ve been abused, we are more likely to allow others to abuse us. And if we’ve struggled financially, we may continue to struggle or go to the other extreme and make money a high priority in life at the expense of our own well-being and our relationships. Regardless, when our identity is defined by the world instead of what God says about us, we miss out on all that God has planned for us. We miss out on the joy, the love, the fulfillment and security that are available when we have our hope in Christ.
Have you take a look at the Bible to see what God says about you? It is truly amazing! Here are just a few things God says about you:
You were created in the image of God. –Genesis 1:27
You are fearfully and wonderfully made. –Psalm 139:13
God loves you so much that He sent His only Son to pay the price for your sins. –John 3:16
You are a new creation in Christ – the old is gone and the new is here! –2 Corinthians 5:17
You are God’s masterpiece, created in Christ Jesus to do good works which God prepared in advance for you to do. –Ephesians 2:10
You are a joint heir with Christ. –Romans 8:17
You are more than a conqueror in Christ. –Romans 8:37
You are a partaker of God’s divine nature. –2 Peter 1:3-4
You are an ambassador for Christ. –2 Corinthians 5:20
You are a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a purchased people. –1 Peter 2:9
You are the light of the world. –Matthew 5:14
You have a spirit of power, love and a sound mind. –2 Timothy 1:7
This is your identity in Christ when you accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior. The problem for even those who have accepted Christ is that many haven’t taken on their new identity. We have to learn who we are by reading the Bible and then walk out our lives in this new self.
So how do you walk in that identity? Let me share with you how the Holy Spirit showed this to me.
I was getting ready for work one Monday morning reflecting on my identity. And it occurred to me that over the last year, I have taken on a new identity at work since I was promoted to a more senior level. I noticed that something new was welling up in me. It wasn’t pride, but a sense of responsibility and confidence. It was as if I now had permission to access something in me that had been dormant. Maybe it was being prepared. Baking, so to speak. Growing, like an embryo in the womb. And being promoted was the shot of hormones needed to birth this part of me I hadn’t expressed before – at least not fully. Other leaders in the company also noticed it and even commented that I was contributing at a new level.
We’ve all had experiences like this … when we get married, we take on the identity of wife; when we have a child, the mother in us emerges; when we land a particular job, it becomes a significant part of who we are.
We simply need to take the time to understand what it really means to belong to Christ and have Christ in us. It’s permission to walk in forgiveness and grace, and put condemnation in the past. It’s the strength we need to overcome challenges because the source of that strength is Jesus. It’s access to wisdom we didn’t know we could have through the Holy Spirit. And it’s a responsibility to represent our Savior well and honor all He has done for us.
Jesus Christ is our Lord and Savior, our Provider and Protector, the source of all our gifts, of all we need today and all we will ever need. When the rest of the world is falling apart, Jesus is the One we can always count on to be our Rock. And he came that we might have life and have it abundantly (John 10:10)!
So claim this identity in Christ for yourself.
It will take replacing the old beliefs with what God says about you. Pray the verses above over yourself repeatedly ever day until they take root in your heart. Ask God in prayer to help you replace the lies with His truth about who you are. It may take some time. Be persistent until you experience a knowing deep down in your heart. Then keep going! Allow God’s Word to work in you. It will, if you don’t give up.
I can tell you from experience, you’ll have a whole new sense of peace, joy, and security that can only come from finding our identity in Christ.
How many of you have created New Year’s resolutions in the past? What are some of them? How has that gone?
The definition of a resolution is a “firm decision to do or not to do something.” It typically stems from a need we identify to make a change in ourselves and the way we live our lives. Do you know that on average, only about 45% of people make New Year’s resolutions? 24% of those people never succeed.
What I hear most often from people who don’t make New Year’s resolutions is that they don’t work. The question I have is – which doesn’t work, the New Year’s resolutions or the person making them?
Resolutions don’t carry themselves out without real resolve in the person making them. You need to be committed to seeing them through and turn to God for help. We can’t change ourselves, but God can change us.
Jesus replied, “What is impossible with man is possible with God.” ~ Luke 18:27
But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me. ~ 1 Corinthians 15:10
The trouble with many New Year’s resolutions is that they’re often a laundry list of things we think we “should” be doing, but if we’re honest with ourselves, we’re not really committed to them. We think we should lose weight, or get angry less. We think we need to exercise or we should be doing a better job of staying in touch with the people we care about. But thinking you should and being committed to making a change are very different things. And that laundry list of “shoulds” can become another excuse for beating ourselves up as days and weeks go by and nothing is changing. Can anyone relate?
I was introduced to “Get One Word” two years ago. It started out as a website with some helpful information about creating a way to focus on just one word that could really create change in our lives. I still set goals for the year, but I don’t do resolutions any more. I get that one word for the year that God puts on my heart and it makes a bigger difference than all of the resolutions I might feel guilted into setting.
The first year, my word was "Abide." That was a powerful one for me because I really needed to learn how to abide in Christ. It was completely abstract to me previously. When I made my focus for the year abide, I finally learned as I progressed through the year what it means to abide in Christ and how to do it. That is now a permanent part of me that is still growing, but took a huge leap in 2014.
In 2015, my word was "purpose." I finally finished reading the Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren. I started a blog and I signed up to go back to college for what I now feel strongly is my life’s purpose.
This year, my word is "Strength." I know I need to lean on God for strength to do all that is in front of me as my organization grows, as I grow and as I move forward with greater commitment to my life’s purpose. I need strength to avoid distractions, to stay focused and to not give into the desires of my flesh, but rather to keep my eyes fixed on Jesus.
The fact is, it’s easy to over-complicate life and get busy with too many things. One word simplifies where you will grow in the New Year and gives you a focus.
