My Identity Is In Christ

As I began to write this, I didn’t really comprehend that I might be putting personality and identity together as the same thing. I looked into it and got some feedback on what others thought the difference was, if there was a difference. And what I can conclude is that there is obviously a difference. Identity is the core of who you are, while personality is a combination of quality traits that define a persons character. Personality is what others see, but identity is an inward connection with what makes you who you are. Personality can be altered by situation and with time, but identity is more concrete. With this I am not talking about worldly identity of family, friends, controversy on gender, race, etc. I am talking about that revelational connection of knowing what you were made for.

Now that I have educated myself on the topic, I am ready to share some different thoughts then I had planned. The struggle, but also the growth, in the blogging life.

Growing up I struggled with knowing who I was. Now, knowing the difference between identity and personality, I can say that I also struggled with allowing my personality to flourish and shine. I was so afraid that if I allowed people to see my true personality they would think I was a complete weirdo and not like me. I still struggle with this. My struggle with my identity is different than my struggle with my personality. When I say I struggled with knowing who I was, that is a personal struggle within myself to find out my identity. But when I say that I struggle with allowing other people to see the real me, that is a personality struggle. I think it is so easy to confuse personality and identity, because they are so closely connected. When we feel we have to suppress our personality, we feel that we are not able to fully be ourselves; we feel we are not being who who we are. We connect our personality to our identity so much, because I think it is a reflection of our identity. It is giving people a glimpse of the person that is on the inside. So even though they are different, they can be connected in that way.

If I struggle with knowing my identity, the core of who I am, I am most likely going to struggle with how to portray my personality, which can be a reflection of my identity. So to understand and shape my personality, I need to find my core identity. There are two most common ways to do this: finding identity in the world or finding identity in what you believe in.

A lot of people identify themselves by worldly standards, like I mentioned above; whether that be by family, friends, a relationship, gender, race, job, material possessions, etc. They identify by it and find their worth in it. But there is a pattern with all of these things listed; they are temporary. These things, along with the world, won’t last forever. So why base your whole identity on things that only last a short time? Why put all your worth in things that cannot be sustained?

Then there are the people who identify with their belief. There are a lot of beliefs, so a lot of people identify with each different one. But in my belief, the Christian faith, we believe in only one true eternal God. John 17:3 states it, “Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.” To understand how your identity comes from God, you have to understand what He did for you. There is this thing called sin that we all possess; it is the nasty, unholy things we do that go against God. These things are detestable in God’s sight and are punishable by death (Romans 6:23). But to finish the verse Romans 6:23, “…the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” God sent Jesus into the world to be a light, an example of the way we are to live. And then after His time was up, God allowed Him to die for our sins. He did this so that we could have a chance to be right with Him. If we refuse to believe that Jesus Christ died for us, then we will stay in our sinful ways. We will continue to identify with our sin and allow it to shape our personality into a sinful nature. But if we accept God’s grace, His gift of Jesus Christ as our savior, then we become a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17). We put off the sinful ways and start to identify with Christ, living out our lives as He showed us.

To identify with Christ is to identify with who He is. Who is He then? First of all, He is the Son of God and dearly loved by God (Matt. 3:17). So if we identify with Christ then we become children of God, heirs of God,  and are dearly loved by Him. Jesus was a righteous man, He had no sin. So to identify with Jesus is to identify with His righteousness. We put on righteousness when we except Christ’s sacrifice on the cross. He put on our sin so that we could put on His righteousness and be right with God (2 Corinthians 5:21). Along with His sacrifice, He also had victory over death (Romans 6:9). If we identify with Christ, we also identify with His victory. Just as Christ died to sin, He also raised victorious from it; it did not have a hold on Him. We share in this victory over sin and death. We too are dead to sin and now have eternal life with Christ. These are a few of the ways we identify with Christ.

To have our identity be in Christ, we have an identity that is eternal; unlike a worldly identity. And our worth is so much greater than the shallow worth of a worldly identity. Because if Jesus was dearly loved by God, so are we in our identity in Him. We are loved so much that we are worth dying for! When we accept all this, we begin to accept our true identity. We begin to understand what we are made for, because we are finally accepting the identity of the one who created us. When we accept our true identity, we begin to reflect it in our personality. Instead of a sinful nature, we put on the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23). It doesn’t matter how we display it, whether loud and extraverted or quiet and introverted, as long as we display it with the intention of displaying Christ. God made each of us uniquely different. And we each have our own purpose and our own way of displaying that purpose. When we accept His identity as our own, He starts to shape the person He has intended us to be.

So let’s stop trying to make our identity in this world! Let’s stop trying to be in competition mode with everyone else! So what if they have more money, a better job, a great relationship, and whatever else we strive to covet of them. We have this amazing gift of a true identity in Christ waiting to be displayed in our lives! No matter the situation we are in, let us rejoice in sharing in the love God has for us! Let us rejoice in the blessing that we get to be children of God! Let us rejoice in the victory over sin, because of the sacrifice of Christ! Let us rejoice in the gift of eternal life we have in Christ! Those are things of greater value than anything of this world.

God Bless You!

Love,

theblessingsgirl

Just Show Up

Sometimes I struggle with the thought that I am doing youth ministry for no reason. I get discouraged because I feel like it is going no where and that the kids are not getting it anyway. I feel this way because I put my hope in the results, rather than in God. I become more consumed with the idea that I need to say the right thing, act a certain way, and
basically be this perfect youth minister in order to see real success in my ministry. With this idea, I turn the ministry into me centered rather than Christ centered. I have to remind myself that I am not the one who saves, it is God who does that. God knows exactly what He has planned for the ministry. He knows each kid who steps into the doors and He knows exactly what they need to know in that moment. He sees them where they are, and He also sees where they are going. Me on the other hand, I have no clue. For me to take things into my own hands, I would surly fail. That is why God has shown me that it isn’t about trying to be the savior, but to be the servant who just shows up.

In order to fully grasp the message I am trying to give, I have to let you in on my back story. In my own life, I grew up in the church atmosphere. I attended Sunday church service, and having my father as the youth pastor at our church, I of course attended youth group. I grew up believing in God. But it wasn’t till recently did I fully grasp what it means to truly believe and follow Christ. Don’t get me wrong, my childhood of going to church and youth group wasn’t all for nothing; without it I would not have had a foundation of understanding to build on. Even though, in my youth, my faith was immature and not quite right, I still had a head start from those who didn’t grow up going to church. The beliefs stuck with me and shaped my character of who I wanted to be. Instead of going along with doing all the bad things other kids did, I had a conscience from all the teachings I had learned from church. So even though I may not have fully been a true Christian in my youth, I surly wouldn’t have as strong as a faith as I do now without the constant influence of the church growing up.

With that said, I want to dig a little deeper into the real meaning of “the church.” When you think of church, you normally think of a building, right? But what if I told you that the church is not a building, but it’s really a being. It is all of us as believers coming together under the authority of God. When we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior, than we also accept the Holy Spirit which dwells within us. As the Spirit, God, dwells in us we become His temple (1 Corinthians 6:19). We ourselves, than, become the church. So when I talked about having a church influence growing up, I wasn’t talking about a building; I was talking about being influenced by believers in the building we call church. If it weren’t for those believers showing up to teach me, than I wouldn’t be where I am today. I wouldn’t be sitting here writing this blog trying to do exactly what they did for me, which is teach God’s truth. They weren’t the ones who saved me, Jesus did that. But because of their obedience to just show up, I now share in the body of Christ as a believer. God used them to reach me.

So when it comes to ministry we need to have a heart that is willing to just show up. Not expecting our plans to be set in stone, but rather trusting in God’s plan. We tend to put unnecessary pressure on ourselves to meet a certain goal in our ministry; whether that be an expectation of a certain amount of people showing up, or trying to save everyone who comes in, and so on. But this is the only goal we need to have: To make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey what God has commanded us (Matthew 28:18-20). It’s fine to have a plan on how to make this goal happen, and it is fine to try and provide as much as we can so that people can come to salvation. But when we start to put it into our own hands to have the perfect plan and to be the one to save, than it becomes a problem. We need to make room for God’s plan, and sometimes that is not always going to seem like the best plan. In Luke 10:8-12 Jesus is giving the disciples direction on what to do when a town they are going to preach the gospel to, accepts them and when they don’t accept them. They are to stay in the town that accepts them and heal and preach the gospel of the kingdom to come. But when they reach a town that does not accept them they are to shake off the dust from their feet and leave, warning the people of the kingdom to come and how bad it will be for them. If the disciples were not going to have trouble in their ministry, than Jesus would not have had to direct His disciples with this message. But He did know they would have trouble, just as we are to have trouble in our own ministry. God knows that not everyone that steps in our doors will accept the gospel. But it doesn’t stop Him from commanding us to just show up. We are rewarded for our obedience, not in our ability, or rather inability, to fulfill our “perfect” plan.

Ministry is going to be hard. Just like we see in the last passage I stated above, Jesus even warns us. He didn’t say it would be easy and that everything would go just how we planned it. Rather, we will have set backs and we will face rejection. One encouraging verse for this though is Galatians 6:9, “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.” Because we also know that there will be those who will listen. There will be those youth who get it. We will be used to help make a way for the light to reach those God has called to be His own. But that won’t happen unless we just show up. If we want to be an influence in someones life, if we want to show people Christ, if we want to make a difference for God, than all we have to do is just show up. Whatever God’s call is in your life, just show up. God will do the rest. Trust in His plan.

God Bless You!

Love,

theblessingsgirl

No More Judgement

Cheating…Bullying…Divorce…Gossip…Lying…Greed…Sexual impurity… Lustful thoughts… These are just a few of the painful and ugly parts of my life. Some I was a victim of and others that I participate in. I cannot hide from them, because they refuse to be hidden. They shape my life and have made me who I am. Though I may not be proud, or may not enjoy the pain, I still must appreciate the journey they have brought me on. They have strengthened me and taught me more about life then I would like to admit. I am telling you all this, because God has filled my heart with the need to share. I need to share about grace. I need to share about this because I may have shown a lack of it in my life. If I am desiring to live a life that reflects Christ, then my actions need to be soaking with the grace and love that He has shown me. My heart grieves for anyone who I may have made to believe that I would be the type of person who judges and is not accepting of them. Especially the ugly side. That is not what I want to be known for, because then I have failed to be like Jesus. I have failed to do what I am called to do. So here I am giving you a glimpse of my own ugly side to show you that I too have failed. I am no better than you.

Romans 3:23, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” When we judge each other, we fail to bring to life this verse. We get into the mind set that if we focus on others’ sins then we can keep the focus off our own. We start to excuse our sin, because at least its not as bad as theirs. Part of Romans 6:23 says,”For the wages of sin is death…” It doesn’t say, “this one sin is worse and is punishable by death…” All sin is punishable by death. And sin is any immoral act, wrongdoing, or wickedness. This includes greed, sexual immorality, adultery, homosexual offenders, divorce, thieves, drunkards, witchcraft, selfish ambition, hatred, jealousy, envy, idolatry, murder, lying (1 Corinthians 6:9,10; Malachi 2:16; Galatians 5:20,21; Exodus 20:13,16). It is anything that goes against God’s commands, which can be found in Exodus 20. All of these things are punishable by death. No amount of evil can be accepted by God, no matter the sin. So for us to look on another person and judge their sin is not okay.

One of my favorite stories from the bible is John 8:1-11. Jesus is in the temple courts at Mount of Olives and He has a crowd gathered around Him. At that moment, Rabbi and Pharisees bring in a woman who was caught in adultery. They asked Jesus if He would have her stoned, just as the Law of Moses says to. They were asking in hopes to trap Him and accuse Him. Jesus replies in the best way imaginable; “If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her” (verse 7). All the men left, because none could say he was without sin. No one is in the right place to cast judgement on another persons sin. The verse continues with Jesus being the only one left. He is the only one who has the right to judge us, because He had no sin. But instead of punish, this is what He does: “‘Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?’ ‘No one, sir,’ she said. ‘Then neither do I condemn you,’ Jesus declared. ‘Go now and leave your life of sin'” (verse 10-11). Jesus gave this woman another chance at life, just as He has given us another life in Him. He has freed us of our sin and took it as His own in order that we may live. Just as He tells this woman to go and leave her life of sin, He tells us the same thing. He could have let us die for our sin, but He didn’t! He loves us so much and He pours out His grace to show us.

Colossians 3:12-13, “Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.” I know this is speaking about forgiveness, but forgiveness is the greatest example of grace. It was on that cross that Jesus poured out His grace by paying the price for our sin so that we could be forgiven from it. So we too must pour out that grace by forgiving those around us; whether that be for doing wrong to us or just doing wrong in general. Now there is a difference between accepting a sin and forgiving a sin. We cannot, as ambassadors for Christ, just allow sin to happen without bringing light to its wickedness. This is backed up in Ephesians 5:11, “Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them.” All throughout the Old Testament it speaks of the sinfulness of man and the grief and anger it causes God. We see the punishment of God on His people for their sin; we see the righteous anger He has. But we also see the grace that pours out from God’s love for His people. He redeems them and saves them in their time of need. So, again, since we are seeking to be more like God, we need to have a righteous anger toward sin; when we see people murder, caught in adultery, act of homosexuality, divorcing a spouse, being greedy, lying, or any other sin. These things should grieve and anger us, but they should not distort the character of the Spirit within us. The flesh tells us to judge and hate the person, but the Spirit says to be gentle and kind. We are to expose darkness, but expose it in love as God does. We do not have the right to expose it in judgement.

I grieve the sin I see being committed around me, but I should not allow it to cloud my grievance for my own sin being committed. We all sin and fall short. Therefore, no one is better than the other. So do not take my grievance and anger toward sin being committed as judgement or hate towards you personally. Rather, it comes from a righteous place of not wanting to see God’s people fall away from His commands. But if I am honest with myself, I will admit I am not perfect and sometimes my thoughts can be judgmental. For this I grieve as well. God is still at work in me. I want people to see God’s grace reflected in my actions. I no longer want to be judgmental. What about you?

I hope this can be a way to apologize if I have ever made anyone feel like I have judged them. I also hope it can be a way to expose anyone else who struggles with judging. We are all struggling together. But the struggle does not have to keep us from fighting against it. We can have victory if we allow the Spirit to be at work within us. Continue to feed the Spirit with God’s truth which is spoken in the Bible. And I challenge you to forgive anyone who you have a grievance with. Remember what God has forgiven you from. Let God’s grace be evident in your life.

God Bless You!

Love,

theblessingsgirl