Who are you?

I am reading a book a dear friend of mine gave me called Becoming Spiritually Beautiful by Sharon Jaynes. The book is about seeing yourself from God's perspective. It's a very good book. I've been getting a lot out of it. The last chapter I read jogged a memory of mine.

A few years ago I did a Beth Moore study called Believing God. In it she talks about believing we are who God says we are. What a breakthrough moment in my life. I had gone through a divorce only two years prior to this study and, though I was a Christian, I felt worthless. As if I had this mark on my life because of my past, with no hope of restoring me to be able to be used by God. For some reason I thought I had to be blemish free for God to use me. I forgot about the many examples of people in the bible who God used in a mighty way. God loves to take the least of people and make them into powerhouses for His kingdom.

Isaiah 43:18 says, "Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past."

Phillipians 3:13b-14 says, "…Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus." Of course, at the time I had not thought of these verses. Anytime we're believing lies of Satan, scripture is not in our mind because scripture shatters any lie Satan is trying to feed you. The key is John 8:31-32 "Jesus said to the Jews that had believed in Him, "If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples." We must daily, continuously be in God's word. Putting it in our hearts and minds and putting it into practice in our lives. We need to take note of who God says we are so that when Satan comes at us with his poison of lies we quickly recognize it and respond with the truth of who God says we are.

Within this last year I remember going through a rough time of being anxious. As I was struggling to find the root of it all, I was dwelling on negative thoughts I had in my head about myself. Out of nowhere the Lord said to me, "Who told you these things?" I thought for a minute not sure what He was talking about. He continued, "Who told you you're unworthy, unlovely,…(long pause)... Because it wasn't me. Would you like to know what I think about you?" Boy, that stopped me in my tracks and made me realize I was listening to the lies of the enemy, Satan. He's always trying to take joy and productivity away from the believer in Christ. He'll take anything he can from you. We need to learn who we are in Christ and know the promises God has given us as His children and act like who God says we are. WOW!! If we all did that, we would be powerhouses for God.

So, who does God say we are? What does He think about us? Well, to Him you are precious, beautiful, dearly loved, co-heirs with Christ (Rom. 8:17). As Beth Moore explains in her Believing God bible study when we look at Ephesians 1:1-8 we see God says we are blessed, chosen, adopted, accepted, redeemed, and forgiven. We are loved! We don't become the sin. We confess it and we're forgiven. I am redeemed! Realizing that was a breakthrough for me.

There are several different lists out there showing us our identity in Christ. There was one in the Spiritually Beautiful book I'm reading. I'll name just a few she mentioned. I am valuable to God (Matt. 6:26), I am free from condemnation (Rom. 8:1), I am the fragrance of Christ (II Cor. 2:15), I am a saint (Eph. 1:1). You could probably do a search on the internet for some more statements like these if this is an area you'd like to look further into. Your pastor probably has one too.

I encourage us all, as believers, to learn who we are in Christ. Believe what God says. And act like we believe Him. We can all defeat insecurity, inadequacy, and inferiority by knowing who we are in Christ. How God sees us. Then we can be the dynamic warriors God made us to be.