Self-image is and has been a hot topic for many years. It seems that one of the evil one’s most common deceptions and distractions has been to get us to focus on ourselves and become critical of ourselves. We see aspects of our body or our personality that we don’t like, and we begin to obsess over them. We might work to try to change them, grieve over them, or come to despise them. If our focus is frequently on what we think is wrong or needs to be fixed with us, then it is not on God and what He is calling us to do and be.

Now, let me give a little disclaimer here. I’m not saying that we shouldn’t strive to be healthy physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. In fact in Scripture we are told that our bodies belong to God and that we should honor God with our bodies. In fact, there may be times when He is calling us to make changes in obedience to Him. It’s important to know the difference between God-given, grace-filled conviction that restores us and condemnation that the evil one uses to fill us with shame and hopelessness and distract us from God.

We can serve God best when we are healthy. However, we can’t serve God, worship Him or follow Him well when our focus is not on Him. We can’t allow the evil one to distract us with whispers of shame or distortions of who we are. Let’s root ourselves in God’s truth by reading our Scripture passage in Psalm 139:1-16 today, and then let’s take a closer look at verses 13 through 16:

“For You formed my inward parts;
You wove me in my mother’s womb.
I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
Wonderful are Your works,
And my soul knows it very well.
My frame was not hidden from You,
When I was made in secret,
And skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth;
Your eyes have seen my unformed substance;
And in Your book were all written
The days that were ordained for me,
When as yet there was not one of them.”

There is so much in those verses for us to remember and take to heart. First, we were created by God. He is the Creator of everything including us. We see this in these verses and in the very beginning in Genesis 1:27

“God created man in His own image, in the the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.”

He created us. He formed us. We are wonderfully made.

Let’s pause there for a moment. Look at these words from Psalm 139:14, “Wonderful are Your works, And my soul knows it very well.” Does your soul know that? Really know that? Do you believe that God’s works are wonderful? It’s easy to stand looking at the Grand Canyon, a beach, the mountains or so many other aspects of God’s creation and say from the depths of our souls that God’s works are wonderful. Do we look in the mirror and say the same thing?

We were created in God’s image. We were formed and woven together by God. We were fearfully and wonderfully made. We are one of His works, and His works are wonderful. When you look at yourself do you see that? Do you truly believe that?

I wonder how often we doubt God or even border on calling Him a liar when we are critical of ourselves. Are we saying, “God your works are wonderful, except for me. You made some mistakes here”? I doubt any of us are saying that out loud or even consciously, but ultimately it seems some seeds of unbelief have been sown in many of our lives in this area. We need to uproot those deceptive weeds and strengthen the roots of our identity in Him because the truth is that we are one of God’s wonderful works. In fact, we’re the only one created in His image.
Find some ways today to remind yourself of these truths, and strengthen your roots in Him. You were created in God’s image. You were formed and woven together by God. You were fearfully and wonderfully made. You are one of His works, and His works are wonderful.

Most of us probably have memories of being lined up as kids ready to play a game while two people begin choosing teams. We would wait on pins and needles to see if we were going to be chosen or if we would be in the embarrassing position of being the last ones standing there. It was the difference between being wanted or being a person they were forced to take. We all wanted to be chosen. We wanted to know that we were wanted.

If you’ve never experienced this unique form of torture, consider yourself lucky. It’s likely that you’ve felt these feelings in other ways though. In fact, most of us have felt this desire to be wanted in much more significant ways than just the selection of teams for a group of kids. We feel the longing to be wanted and the fear of hurt or rejection when we don’t get the job we hoped for, struggle to make friends, have a bad breakup, have challenging relationships with our parents, and so much more. There are plenty of difficult things in life and times we will all experience rejection. In those moments, we can often hear the whispered lies that we aren’t good enough or that no one loves us or wants us. Let’s battle those lies by rooting ourselves with some truth.

We know we are loved by God, but it goes so much beyond that. God’s love for us isn’t just a distant, “I love you and want the best for you.” He does, but it’s not distant. It’s very personal. He doesn’t just love you, but He has chosen you.

In 1 Peter 2:9 we find this great encouragement:

“But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;”

Peter was speaking to the believers here. He is saying that we are chosen and holy or set apart. We are a people “for God’s own possession” or in other words: we belong to God. He has called us from darkness into His light. Our response is proclaiming His excellence. That seems like an appropriate response. God, the creator and God of the whole universe, has chosen me and He has chosen you. I don’t know about you, but being chosen for something special excites me and I want to tell people I know and sometimes maybe even people I don’t. God has chosen you. Let those words really sink in.

As they sink in, let’s look at Ephesians 1:3-4 as it tells us a little more about when we were chosen:

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him.”

Did you catch that? He chose us before the foundation of the world. Unless you’re super old, I’m pretty sure that was before you were born. He chose you before you were born. Before you could do anything or earn anything, God chose you. We aren’t used to this. In this world it so often seems like we need to prove ourselves in order to be chosen. We need to prove our skills or character or worth or likability or compatibility in order to be chosen. So why would God choose us before we could even do anything?

We see the answer to that question in Ephesians 2:4-7

“But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.”

God chose us, not because of anything we’ve done or should do, but because of His love and grace. God is gracious. We see this all through Scripture as well. In fact, as God was giving Moses the Ten Commandments in Exodus 34:6 He said these words about Himself:

“Then the Lord passed by in front of him and proclaimed, ‘The Lord, the Lord God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth;’”

That is a pretty great description of God’s character. He is gracious. He is gracious to us. We don’t have to earn God’s favor. He chooses us because He is gracious and He loves us. It really is that simple and trustworthy. His heart is filled with that love and longing for you. Isaiah 30:18 gives us a beautiful description of that longing God has for us:

“Therefore the Lord longs to be gracious to you,
And therefore He waits on high to have compassion on you.
For the Lord is a God of justice;
How blessed are all those who long for Him.”

God desires to pour His grace on you, and out of that grace He chooses you. When we struggle with feelings of rejection from others, and feel like we are unloved or unwanted, let’s remember our true identity in Christ. We have been chosen by the Almighty God because He is gracious.

As much as we long to be understood like we talked about in the last article, sometimes the idea of being fully known and fully understood can scare us. When the whispers and lies of the evil one start creeping in, the doubts, fears, and insecurities frequently come along with it: “If they know me, really know and start to understand me, will they like me? Will they still love me if they really know and understand me?”

While people are far from perfect and sometimes we may encounter people who don’t love us, we don’t have to look far in the Bible to see that we are loved. Extravagantly, overwhelmingly, loved. Depending on what translation of the Bible you are reading, you’ll find the word “love” anywhere from 300 to over 600 times and many of these are speaking of God’s love for us.

For many of us, from a young age we heard, sang, and probably even believed these words:

“Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so.
Little ones, to Him belong; they are weak, but he is strong.
Yes, Jesus loves me! Yes, Jesus loves me!
Yes, Jesus loves me! The Bible tells me so.”

Words we sang with confidence as young children, we began doubting and having insecurities cloud the joy, trust, and boldness that we had in them and in the love Jesus has for us. It reminds me of John 10:10 where Jesus says:

“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.”

It honestly makes me kind of mad when I think about it. How many of us had this sweet confidence and trust that Jesus loved us and we knew it was true because the Bible told us it was true. Then over the years the world around us and the schemes of the evil one made us question that at times. It didn’t happen overnight. We might have recognized it if it happened suddenly, but it was this slow erosion of our confidence in God’s love for us. The evil one slowly began stealing our confidence in God’s love, maybe even killing our joy and boldness, and possibly even destroying our belief in the process. How dare he take something so precious from us!

It’s not too late though. We can reclaim it. When Jesus defeated sin and death, he set the captives free and allows us to return to the freedom and joy that was stolen from us.

We can start by remembering the trust we had in God’s Word. We accepted God’s love for us because the Bible told us so. We trusted that the Bible was God’s Word and that it was true. There are many verses that remind us of the truth of God’s Word. John 8:31-32 is one example:

“So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, “If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.”

And when the doubts still want to creep in, John 14:6 gives us this important reminder:

“Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.”

Jesus is truth. His word gives us the truth. We can trust what He tells us. We can confidently proclaim the truth of God’s love for us because “the Bible tells us so” and we know God’s Word is true.

So when those insecurities or shame or doubt are being whispered, or shouted, in our heads, we can remember the truth. Sometimes those doubts and insecurities try to tell us that we aren’t good enough for God to love us, or that we’ve done something He can’t forgive, or maybe we just question if it’s really true because it sounds too good to be true. It is true though. It’s too good to be true, but because God is True it is true, and we don’t have to be perfect or even better or more for it to be true. God loves us!

“For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:6-8)

Did you catch all that? We were helpless. There is nothing we need to or can do to earn His love. He died for the ungodly. We don’t need to clean up our act and be more godly for Him to give us this gift of love because He already did. God demonstrates His love. Check that word out. He didn’t say that He demonstrated His love like He did it once and it was over. Jesus died for us once and paid the price for our sin, but God uses that action to demonstrate His love for us each and every day, each and every moment. He loves us so much that He continually demonstrates His love for us. Christ died for us, and God began demonstrating His love to us while we were still sinners. He already loved us when we were messed up, messing up, and just a big mess.

He loves us. Full stop. There is no if or but or when involved. He loves us and we can root our identity in the fact that we are loved by God because we know that God, and His Word, are true.

Not only are we known. We are understood.

In our last devotional, we talked about how well God knows us and we took a look at some verses from Psalm 139. Let’s take another look at Psalm 139:1-2 today:

“O Lord, You have searched me and known me.
You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
You understand my thought from afar.”

God’s knowledge of us is not just knowing who we are, but also truly understanding us. Understanding our thoughts as this verse says, and understanding our struggles and day to day lives.

Just as we long to be known, we also long to be understood. No one wants to feel misunderstood. Sometimes we blow it and don’t act or say things in quite the right way, and that can lead to being misunderstood. Sometimes people who have been hurt by others have their own struggles and presume that we have bad intent like other people have had in their lives have. Other times we may never know the reason that someone misunderstands our words, actions, or even who we are as a person. No matter what the reason is, being misunderstood doesn’t feel good.

In fact, we long for people to understand us, and for close friends, family, and loved ones to really get us. I think this is why gifts can be so meaningful sometimes. No matter the size or monetary value, the best gifts are those that show that someone gets us. They understand.

We can know that even when it feels like those closest to us just don’t get us, Jesus truly understands us. He was God’s great gift to us, showing us that He understands. He understood better than even we did that what we needed most was to be forgiven and have a restored relationship with Him. We see that in John 3:16, one of the most famous verses in the Bible:

“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.”

When Joseph found out Mary was pregnant and was trying to decide what to do, an angel spoke to him in a dream saying:

“‘She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.’ Now all this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet: ‘Behold, the virgin shall be with child and shall bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,’ which translated means, ‘God with us.’”
(Matthew 1:21-23)

Immanuel, God with us. He hear this phrase at Christmas, but do we really understand what it means? God sent Jesus to the world to be “God with us”. He was fully God, but also fully man. He lived in this world just as we do, except He did it perfectly and gave Himself up as a sacrifice for us. Because He came to live with us, He experienced the same things we do. He was hurt. He was betrayed. He got angry. He rejoiced. He grieved. He loved. He got frustrated and indignant. He had compassion. He enjoyed life and suffered in life just as we do. Hebrews 4:14-16 puts it this way:

“Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”

Jesus can “sympathize” with our weaknesses. He knows what it’s like. He doesn’t just know us. He truly understands us. What we are feeling, He felt. He knows what it’s like and we can draw near to Him in confidence that with Him we are truly and deeply understood.

In the last article, we talked about the importance of knowing the truth that we are not alone. That is definitely an important starting place, and something we need to remember. There is more to it though. Part of not feeling alone means feeling like we are known.

The connection between these two is part of what makes it possible to be in a room full of people you know and still feel alone. When we feel like people don’t truly know us, that loneliness can creep in, and along with it those whispered lies that people don’t like us enough to really get to know us, that if they really knew us they wouldn’t want us around, or any number of other things that the evil one can use to distract us from our true identity in Christ.

When we realize those lies or feelings are creeping in, there is truth that we can remember:

“O Lord, You have searched me and known me.
You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
You understand my thought from afar.
You scrutinize my path and my lying down,
And are intimately acquainted with all my ways.
Even before there is a word on my tongue,
Behold, O Lord, You know it all.”
Psalm 139:1-4

These are amazing verses. Take time and slowly read through them again, thinking about what is being said.

God has searched you. God KNOWS you. He knows you when you’re sitting or standing. He knows your thoughts. He knows where you’ve been, where you are at, and where you’re heading. He is “intimately acquainted” with all your ways. That phrase blows me away. God not just knows me and my ways, but He is knows them intimately. He is very familiar, and has very close, personal knowledge of me.  So close that He knows what I’m going to say before I even say it.

Have you ever had a really good friend or loved one who knows you so well and knows your stories and the way you think so well that they can pretty much finish your sentences. This is really nice when you’re so tired you can’t even complete your thought, but it’s okay because you don’t need to because they already know what you’re going to say. This is God. All the time. He knows you that well, and loves hearing from you even when He already knows what you are going to say.

If those verses aren’t enough and you still have doubts about just how well God knows you, take a look at Luke 12:6-7 with words directly from Jesus:

“Are not five sparrows sold for two cents? Yet not one of them is forgotten before God. Indeed, the very hairs of your head all all numbered. Do not fear; you are more valuable than many sparrows.”

Granted, numbering the hairs on some of our heads is more impressive than others, but no matter how many hairs are on our heads, the point is that God knows and and values us. While understanding how well God knows us is so important to deepening the roots of our identity in Him, it is incomplete without understanding that we can trust this to be true because of who God is.

We can have confidence that God knows us, because God knows everything. He is all-knowing, or to use a big, churchy word: God is omniscient. We see this stated clearly in 1 John 3:19-20 among other places:

“We will know by this that we are of the truth, and will assure our heart before Him in whatever our heart condemns us; for God is greater than our heart and knows all things.”

God knows all things. His knowledge of us is greater and more trustworthy than our own hearts. His knowledge of all things and of you and me is greater than our feelings and doubts. We can root ourselves in Christ and trust that we are intimately known by Him.

In a previous article about the Working Genius model, I talked about how the name for this website, Discerning Wonder, describes me too. While it wasn’t the main reason that I named the website, Discerning Wonder, part of it was because when I took the Working Genius assessment I realized that my geniuses are discernment and wonder.

If you go back and read the first article about Working Genius, you see that I wasn’t too shocked by these results when I took the assessment. It was worded a little differently than I’d seen before, but discerning, brainstorming, wanting to make ideas, processes, and systems better, along with simply wondering why things are the way they are and what can be done about them have always been a part of my life. In fact, one of my earliest memories is standing in our kitchen as a preschooler having a conversation with my mom about something that did not make sense to me, and yes, even as a three year old I literally said, “but that doesn’t make sense.” I thought maybe that part was just in my head, but when I asked my mom a few years ago she confirmed that I did indeed say that out loud.

While that’s a funny memory, and hopefully now I’ve learned that not every thought needs to be said out loud, it still shows that who I am at my core hasn’t changed a lot. That’s not to say I haven’t grown and learned new skills and applications and how to regulate myself more. It’s also not to say that I haven’t surrendered myself to God and submitted to Him allowing His Spirit to work in me and produce fruit. What it is saying is that I’m still the person that God created me to be. God creates each of us with unique wiring, personalities, and passions. He does that because those combined with the skills, experiences, and gifts He gives us help to accomplish the purpose He has for us.

Understanding all this about how He has created and shaped us gives us moments of wonder at just how intricately God’s creation in us and around us is and how blessed we are that He loves us and cares for us that much.  It also helps us to better discern how to use all God has given us to be able to give Him, and others, our best. While I believe that ultimately our focus needs to be on God and not as much on ourselves, taking the time to understand how God has created and shaped us can be helpful.

We all have blind spots in our lives. Things we do, think, or say that we don’t recognize in ourselves, but sometimes are obvious to others. We frequently say things like “they’re too close to the situation” to explain this phenomenon. Sometimes we don’t recognize things about ourselves and others. Jesus described it like this:

“Why do you look at the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ and behold, the log is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.” (Matthew 7:3-5)

Now, if we’re being honest here, we’re all the hypocrite at times. We all have logs of various sizes that we don’t even notice in our own eyes, and while offering to take the speck out of someone else’s eye can be rude and judgmental, sometimes it can also be loving and kind. Ultimately, like Scripture so often points, it comes down to our heart:

“but just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak, not as pleasing men, but God who examines our hearts.” (1 Thessalonians 2:4)

God examines our hearts and we are called to as well. Sometimes that means trying to identify the logs in our eyes or the areas where we have blindspots. Getting to know more about who we are and how we interact with God and others can be helpful as we grow as a person and in relationship with God. Sometimes we can do this on our own by seeking God, applying teachings we hear and read, and using tools like assessments to illuminate things we might not be seeing. Often though, we need others who can see the logs in our lives more clearly. People who do as Proverbs 27:17 says,

“Iron sharpens iron, So one man sharpens another.”

This might come in the form of friends, small group members, accountability partners, mentors, coaches, counselors, or more. All of us can use help as we seek to grow. We all could use some discernment today to better understanding ourselves and overcome blindspots in our lives. Prayerfully consider how you can partner with God to best examine yourself and others you might need to reach out to for help.

Loneliness has become an epidemic in our society. The more technology and resources that we develop to stay connected with others, the worse the feelings of loneliness seem to become. Despite having access to friends and family at our fingertips, in many ways we seem to be feeling more alone and isolated than ever before.

This isn’t just a wide-spread issue. It’s often a very personal one. Have you ever been in a crowd of people and felt alone? Or maybe you are literally alone at times and feel abandoned or neglected by others. Maybe you have lost someone close to you, or feel like you’ve never found “your person”.  Whatever this looks like in your life, we all struggle with feeling alone at times. But sometimes, feelings lie.

Sometimes our feelings of loneliness might be a healthy prompting from our emotions to reach out or to look for others who feel alone, but all too often those feelings and the thoughts that follow get twisted in unhealthy ways. When Paul was encouraging the Ephesians to take up the armor of God he said that they needed to:

“…stand firm against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rules, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places…in addition to all, taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.” (Ephesians 11b-12,16)

I am convinced that these “flaming arrows” come from the one known as the Deceiver during times we are feeling weak and struggling. The feelings of loneliness hit us and instead of allowing those feelings to guide us to connection, we get tangled up in the twisted lies that are whispered to us. The lies that tell us it’s our fault that we are alone. The lies that tell us that something is wrong with us or we’re not good enough and that is why we are alone. Whatever the particular deception that has tangled us up., we get untangled by destroying the lie with God’s truth.

So when we feel like we are alone, what is the truth?

“You whom I have taken from the ends of the earth,
And called from its remotest parts
And said to you, ‘You are My servant,
I have chosen you and not rejected you.
Do not fear, for I am with you;
Do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God
I will strengthen you, surely I will help you,
Surely I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.’”
(Isaiah 41:9-10)

There are numerous verses in the Bible that remind us that God is with us and won’t leave us, but this is one of my favorites. In these two powerful verses we are reminded of so much. He chooses us. He doesn’t reject us. He is with us. He is our God. He strengthens us. He helps us. He upholds us.

Even when we know this truth, the Deceiver will still at times try to shake us and make us doubt. “Is that what God really meant?” “Will God really do that?”

To answer those we go back to Scripture again. Back in Exodus, when God was first teaching the Israelites about who He is, it says:

“The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, ‘The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness,’” (Exodus 34:6 ESV)

While God explains His character to the Israelites in this verse, we see these aspects of His character demonstrated and spoken about all throughout Scripture. He is steadfast, or unmoving, unchanging, in His love for you and me. He is also faithful. He does what He says He will do. That means we can trust Him. When He says He is with us, He is and He will be. All of the promises in Isaiah 41:9-10 we can count on because God is faithful and abounding in steadfast love.

So when feelings of loneliness start invading our hearts and heads, we can know that we are not alone because God is faithful!

We all want to be loved. We were created to love and be loved. In this world though, being loved can be tough at times. It can lead to hurt and that can lead to us trying to manage or alleviate that hurt.

After reading Francis Chan’s book, Beloved, recently I have been thinking more about the amazing love of God. We talk about it a lot. We even sing about it even more: The Love of God, And Can It Be (Amazing Love), Amazing Grace, How He Loves, Reckless Love, How Deep the Father’s Love for Us, and so many more. I found myself wondering if beyond our words and songs, do we really believe and embrace God’s great love for us in our daily lives?

Throughout Scripture there are countless verses about God’s great love for us. This article might become unbearably long if I even attempted to list them all, but here are a few examples:

“The Lord appeared to him from afar, saying, ‘I have loved you with an everlasting love; Therefore I have drawn you with lovingkindness.’” (Jeremiah 31:3)

“So, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience;” (Colossians 3:12)

“But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8)

From the Old Testament, we see God’s faithful love for His children, the Israelites, and His desire for them to be in relationship with Him. In the New Testament, we see Him send His beloved Son to pay the price for our sin and make the restoration of our relationship with Him possible once and for all. We also see that His love wasn’t just for a specific group of people or even the whole of humanity. Although both of these are true, His love is so much more.

His love is for me, personally. It is for you, personally. Jesus died on the cross out of love for all humanity, and out of love for you and out of love for me. God loves and wants a relationship with each and everyone of us.

When I stop and think about His love in this way, it is staggering. He loves me that much. When I think of all that Jesus went through out of His love for me it is shocking. When I think of the great lengths that God has gone to and His patience and persistence in loving me it’s astounding. He loves you in that way too.

As if all of that isn’t enough, unlike our flawed, fallen human love, God’s love is perfect. Though we will go through and experience hurt, His love for us is secure. We will not experience hurt from His love. Instead we can run to Him with our hurts and He will weep and mourn with us while comforting, sustaining and healing us.

Even as I write these words, I am blown away at just how little I seem to understand about the depths of His love for me. I am challenged that I don’t spend nearly enough time dwelling on and appreciating His love. I am reminded of what waits for me as I abide in Him and enjoy the love that He gives so abundantly.

I hope that you will join me in taking time to fully embrace and abide in His great love for each of us today.

“But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved)” (Ephesians 2:4-5)

​Today we will be starting a new Thursday series for the next few months about our identity in Christ. Throughout the Bible, we see statements about who we are. These are ways that God sees us and identifies us. While we have probably read these, maybe even many times, we have an enemy who likes to whisper lies, twist things, and make us forget who we really are. My hope is that in the next few weeks as we read these truths, dwell on them, and hopefully let them sink in a bit more, we will be equipped to live the abundant life He has called us to and move away from the insecurities and lies into His Truth.

As we prepare our hearts for what God has to show us about who we truly are and were created to be, there are a few things that we need to remember. First, as the title of this article and series says, ultimately we find our identity in Him. I’m reminded of John 15:4-5

“Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.”

We  are called to be in Him and He is in us. This abiding and dwelling is an important aspect of finding our identity in Him. If we are not dwelling in Him, as the verse says we can do nothing. This includes staying focused on who He has created us to be, and not getting distracted by so many other things that can throw us off course. 

This dwelling, or abiding, in Him, also means that we stay connected to Him. Staying connected means that we are able to better focus on Him and remember who He is. If we focus on our identity as a way to improve our lives or focus more on ourselves, we are more like the branches John describes in verse 6 when he says:

“If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are burned.”

To continue the vine metaphor, our identity is rooted in Him. On our own we are a dried up branch not worth much of anything other than being blown about in the wind or burned up for fire. I’ve lived most of my life in the desert and tumbleweeds are not an unusual sight. They blow endlessly around the desert in whatever direction the wind takes them unless they happen to blow across the path of car and get hit and shattered into pieces. When we aren’t dwelling in Christ, we can easily become like those tumbleweeds and drift, get tossed around by life, and even hit out of nowhere by something that shatters us. 

We are who He has created and called us to be because of who He is. Dwelling in Him keeps us connected to our true roots. Each week as we look at a key aspect of our identity in Christ we will see that our identity comes from and is most secure when we keep our eyes focused on Him and who He is. 

I hope you will join me these next several weeks as we recognize the amazing vines He has created us to be as we strengthen our roots in Him.