Identity issues can plague us! The all-important issue of identity determines so much about how we will live and what we will do with our time here on earth. No one who has a poor self-image can truly enjoy living, yet the gospel has not come to tell you how great you are. Jesus says: “Without me you can do nothing,” and Paul writes, “For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells.” Hardly a formula for pride based self-esteem!
So what is the answer to our identity questions? Discovering who we really are—now that Jesus has come to live inside of us. And our sense of self-worth? It is based upon the solid rock of His love for us. Period. You are His beloved! Just try to wrap your heart around the enormity of that blazing truth. He lived and died and lives again to bring you fully to life. Everything else you could hope to get out of life—compared to this—is chump change.
The “New Creation” you is the real you. You must believe in the new you. How will you ever become the person you know you are deep down, if you don’t become a believer in the new you? It is not as easy as you might think, because the first step is to STOP believing in the old you! We literally have to clear the way for the Lord. Otherwise we are liable to sabotage all of His efforts to bring…
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How does God see us? This one question will either torment or delight us, depending upon the answer we can give to it. Any Christian can put the right answer to it on a test in school. What we need is for the right answer to spring up from the hidden depths of our heart when the pressures and pains of life pile upon us. And when we see ourselves struggling under them. For the person who believes in God…
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The secret of letting go dawned in me slowly. Do you, too, have a two-fisted approach to life? When stuff happens that makes you angry or anxious, do you grab it with your spiritual hands and hold in a death grip? Oh, I know it feels like anxiety and anger are the ones gripping us, but the reverse is the case. Emotionally and spiritually speaking, nothing can stick to us unless we are the ones doing the holding. I won’t blame…
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“What’s my purpose?” The man sitting across from me at the addiction recovery mission where I work, wanted to know. He’d been beaten nearly to death once, losing a vital body part; he’d been stabbed next to the heart (literally within an inch of his life); and he had been shot several times. A close family member had told him, “God is saving your life for a reason.” He already knew the Lord, but he had no clue what that reason was. What…
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