A few years ago it felt like everybody and their mother was talking about identity theft and the precautions that I should take to prevent my identity from being stolen. I didn’t really buy into all of the hype; I didn’t really think that it was necessary at that stage in my life. Now I am in a totally different stage in my life and identity theft is becoming a much more serious topic, but it’s not the same type of identity that is being stolen, but the repercussions of it happening to me are way more serious!
This month the topic of my conversations with God, and everybody else, has been about stepping into me being the Bride of Christ. As I look back over the last several months I can see that this has been quite the process and I am just now starting to recognize it. As I open myself up more and more to the Holy Spirit I learn more and more about complete dependence on Him. In fact, the deeper I go into this process the more clearly I see that to be the Bride of Christ is for my identity to completely based on Him and who He is. Nothing else can define who I am. Not my ministry, my sense of humor, the friends that I have, whether or not I am married, or when I am married my husband will not change my identity either.
When we allow these other things to creep into our identities we are saying to God that He is not good enough for me. I don’t want that, because at the end of the day I am the one that is not good enough, and yet He chose me anyways.
For the longest time I have wanted nothing more than to be married, to the point that I have really allowed my identity to be affected by the fact that I am not married, nor am I anywhere close to that. Over this past month I have really felt God communicating to me that it isn’t going to happen anytime soon. At first I was pretty upset about this. I mean, I want to be a bride!! But as time went on I came to this realization that I want more to be a bride than I want to be a wife. So, I will spend the next portion of my life establishing my identity in Christ, not anything or anyone else. That way when God tells me it’s time and I get to be married, I will be so ready to be a wife that the Bible says is good, and not the opposite.
So what is it that has a hold of your identity? What is the thing that you use to define who you are?
