Today's Unshackled Echo was previously published on
June 9, 2013 as Checking ID.
He has identified us as his own by placing the Holy Spirit in our hearts.
- 2 Corinthians 1:22a NLT
Allowing ourselves to be beaten up by and over our past as a way of life defeats the purpose of God in our lives. It replaces the victory that we are called to in Christ with defeat. To live under the control and bondage of the past weakens our faith and causes us to doubt God's amazing love for us. Living this way allows the enemy, the world, and our brokenness to define us and determine or value and worth, and allowing that denies the truth of God.
Galatians 2 makes it clear that our faith will grow stronger as we focus on our identity in Christ. This means that if we want to defeat fear and doubt and weakness in our life by strengthening our faith, we need to be learning and taking upon ourselves what the Word of God says about us and not anyone or anything else. It doesn't matter what we've done in the past or what's been done to us. It doesn't matter that we've been broken.
Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. Never mind that my past says I'm a selfish, lying, cheating, thief. The label on my past may indeed say drunk, junkie, felon. But those things are not who I am. They are who I was outside of relationship with God. Your labels may not be as bad as mine. They may be worse. But it doesn't matter, because it is not our mistakes or our personality defects that determine our worth. If you have entered into relationship with your Heavenly Father through faith in Jesus, then you, like me, are defined by that relationship and that relationship only. Hello my name is child of the Most High God, and so is yours. No other label is valid after we have accepted Christ.
You have to abandon any image or label of yourself that is not from God. Stop accepting what others have said about you, how others have labeled you, and how others have defined you. Stop letting the failures and mistakes of the past speak to you about whether or not you deserve to be in relationship with God (you don't, and neither do I, so just let that earning mentality go and accept the grace that's been given). Don't let your past dictate what you can or can't do for God or whether you can accept and fulfill the calling from God on your life.
Start believing what God says about you, that He is pleased with how He created you, and that He loves you. Our selfishness and rebellion marred us like graffiti on a wall, but the blood of Christ has cleaned us, and we are forgiven. You are altogether beautiful, my darling, And there is no blemish in you. (Song of Songs 4:7) That's what God says about you. You are beautiful to Him and there is nothing about you that is ugly or stained by your mistakes, by heritage or from the wounds caused by others.
You’re not defined by your feelings. You’re not defined by the opinions of others or by your circumstances. You’re not defined by your successes or failures. You’re not defined by the job you have or don't have, the car you drive or the shoes you walk in, the money you make or the cup you panhandle with, or the house you live in or the bridge you sleep under.
You are defined by God and God alone. He identifies you as his own (2 Corinthians 1:22).
The thing is, if we don’t know who we are, then we’re vulnerable to other people telling us who we are and how we have to live and what we can and can't accomplish for God. But the simple truth is that we are who God says we are, and no one else has a say in the matter, not even our own minds. What we believe doesn't change that truth, but what we believe effects how that truth manifests in our lives, in our minds and in our hearts.
Knowing and believing our true identity is an important aspect of walking with God. Those who understand who they are in Christ are the ones who have been able to run their race with endurance, who have fought the fight without giving up, who having done all to stand against the enemy continued to stand...they kept going with God. And that's what we can do when we remember who we are in Jesus. When we know that we matter to God none of that other stuff matters, and we have confidence to do what God has called us to do.
If you have accepted Jesus as your Lord, you are now identified with Christ and have the power of the Holy Spirit within you. You are God’s precious child, and He created you in a way that pleases him. You are no longer defined by anything but His love and acceptance. If you have not entered into relationship Jesus and are tired of being beat up by and over your past mistakes, then I encourage you to surrender you heart, your will and your life to the One who loves you and is calling you to Himself. When God calls you beloved, it no longer matters what anyone else calls you.
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