Truth #1: “Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart” (Psalm 37:4). If my happiness and pleasure come from God, then His desires will becomes my desires; therefore, I will get whatever I desire.
Truth #2: “If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!” (Matthew 7:11). God is my Father, and He wants to give me good things. What’s more, I can ask for gifts! What?!
A Lie: If I really enjoy something, then it must come from a place of selfish desire and is not of God.
Throughout this month, N-Squad has been blessed to be more closely discipled (to disciple = to mentor with the purpose of bringing someone into more Christlikeness) by our three wonderful squad leaders: Joshua, Kelly, and Tiffany. One of the things we worked on was thinking about lies that we believe about ourselves and seeking freedom from those lies.
Upon leaving for the Race, I thought I knew myself fairly well. I think I’m pretty self-aware. But I didn’t quite understand that any insecurity I still struggle with stems from a lie that is not part of my true identity as a child of God. The lie above is one of 11 that I have identified in my life that has inhibited me from fully experiencing the freedom God offers me as His daughter.
“For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship…And we know that in all things, God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:15, 28).
Even in these past few weeks, I have already noticed how acknowledging the existence of lies has helped me understand what freedom in following Christ practically looks like. I’m not claiming to have everything figured out, but I do have a better idea of what freedom feels like: every day, I feel so secure in my identity as a daughter of God that even if I lost everything that defined me by the world’s standards (e.g. my physique, my ability to play sports, my ability to speak, any means of monetary gain, etc.) who I truly am would never change. I am beautiful and I am loved by God. It’s really a hard concept to grasp—it’s taken me up ‘til now in my life as a Christian to actually get this head knowledge to travel down to my heart.
I have a feeling that for many of us, we “know” that God loves us, but…not really? You know? It blows my mind how what we may deem as small, insignificant lies can completely distort our view of our entire identity. This is something I’ll probably be walking through all year, so jump on board if you wish!
