Status. Title. Name. Occupation.
Identity.
How we see ourselves. How we define ourselves. How the world see us. How the world defines us. How full and life giving are these things?
Identity can be so many things. Teacher. Victim. Doctor. Addict. Parent.
I have come to realize that the identity that I live in, that I define as myself, is not life giving. Not because all of the identities are inherently “bad,” (while some are bad and need to be rooted out) but that I put more stock in my own identity of myself and forget what my true identity is.
This month, our team has been pouring over that word: “identity.” Over what that means in our own lives. What identities we have had, the ones that we live in even now. Realizing that our true identity is not anything that we can give ourselves, not anything we do, not anything that the world tells us. Our true, real, and lasting identity is in our Father.
That is a very freeing thing to realize, but it is so hard to realize and let go of those old identities that have been with us for nearly all of our lives. How can you let go of something that you once thought so central to who you were, what made you important or not important to others? Or harder still, how can you let go of an identity you can't define? Or you don't realize that you have been given and live in?
A week ago, God woke me up at 5:30 in the morning and revealed to me one of the identities that I had been walking in for years, and didn't really realize. I knew that there was something off, but I could never put my finger on it, I was never able to give it a name. And so it has held its grip on me for a long time.
It was “The girl who is always picked over.” In essence, someone who is always passed over or picked last. Not worth being picked first. That revelation hit me like a ton of bricks, and suddenly my life spun before my eyes and I could pick out so many ways that this particular identity that had always remained elusive to my “naming,” had spun such a thick web of deceit in my life. How I viewed people, how I thought people viewed me, even how I viewed God.
It was so good to put a name on it though. To finally flip the lights on a dark corner of my heart. One that I knew was there, but wasn't really sure what it was, or what it held. To have a name, and speak against that old name was powerful.
What was even more amazing was the new word God gave me instead. What He thought of my old identity, and what He gave me instead of “the girl who is always picked over.” Now, He spoke “Chosen” over me. He has sealed it on my heart, opened my eyes to the fact that it was always there. But now I finally see it. Granted, I am still growing into it. Stepping every day closer to truly believing that with every fiber of my being. Walking away from that old identity and into the new one.
“The girl who is CHOSEN.”
We are all chosen, beloved. You are chosen. You were chosen before you even knew you were. Rest in that.
Our identity is not in what the world thinks or says. It is not how people have treated us, or the identities that they may have forced on us. It is not how we have even treated ourselves. Our identity completely rests in God, because he has created us. He created us for Himself, we are His beloved.
But we have to chose to walk in that. He has chosen us, and He can tell us until he is “blue in the face.” We have to take the initiative and believe him. We have to let him transform our hearts and let him speak our true identity over us.
You are chosen, beloved. Let him speak it over you, and then walk in that.
