Emotional Health Part 3: Understanding who you are in Christ

I believe everyone has a calling on their life, something more than just a dream.  Something that God has brought you here on this Earth to accomplish, but this calling is usually so big it can only be accomplished with His help.  This comes from a deep place in our hearts, that has a very primitive form when we are young, yet tends to get lost somewhere along the way.

I think there are a lot of people that miss out on this calling because someone or something has convinced them they are not worthy to even attempt something so great.  They believe the lies and have made agreements in their mind about who they are.

How could someone so  ___________ (you fill in the blank) ever do something great for the Kingdom of Heaven?  Why would God want to use you? You don’t have anything to offer.

These people have forgotten, or maybe they were never told… who they truly are.  You are God’s son or daughter, His bride, waiting for His return.  You are an heir of the King of kings and Lord of lords.

Yes, we are here on Earth, but this life here is only temporary.  We are spiritual beings, living in these bodies God has given us.  He has uniquely designed every single part of you.  He knit you together in your mother’s womb.  When you think of someone knitting, there is a lot of time, energy and effort put into each stitch made.  I have studied the human body for countless hours in undergrad and Chiropractic school. It is overwhelming how intricate and amazing the body is.  Scientists are still discovering new things about the body every year.  We aren’t just some simple materials slapped together. No, God poured his heart into his workmanship.  He made you out of the love in His heart.

He first made Adam and Eve, whom He loved dearly, but tragedy struck, deception, lies, and sin entered.  God, in His holiness, was no longer able to be with His children, His creation.  His heart broke, and so He made a plan that would cost Him greatly, his son, but would ultimately allow us to be with Him again in heaven someday.

Do you think He would do that if we weren’t deeply cherished and loved?

You aren’t just a nobody.  You have something to offer this world.

Now, my question for you is who do you say you are?  What does your thought life look like?  When you picture yourself in your mind, what do you look like?  When you see yourself in the mirror, what do you think about the reflection?

Proverbs 23:7a says

If we are not filling our minds intentionally about who we are, thoughts of mediocrity, insignificance and feeling like you are never enough will seep in whether you realize it or not.

We need to make an offensive move on this one, don’t just sit back and let everyone else tell you who you are.

Let your Creator tell you who you are.

My suggestion to help this is to ask God to reveal to you who He says you are.   Break the agreements you have made with yourself and replace them with God’s truth.

Here is a link that contains a great list to get you started with: http://ficm.org/about-us/#!/who-i-am-in-christ 

Write your list down and put it in a place where you can see it everyday.

If there are past hurts, where you have felt abandoned by God, where you felt like He didn’t care, bring those images you have kept, those thoughts of yourself in that moment, go back to that scene and ask God, “Where were You?”  God said He will never leave you… so He was there.  Ask Him to show you.

There was a time when I felt abandoned, I felt so violated, alone and scared beyond what I could have ever imagined possible.  I carried this hurt with me for a long time, until someone very wise told me I could ask God about that moment in time.

With tears in my eyes, I prayed and asked God where He was.

And He showed me. In my mind, I immediately saw the scene of me lying there as I remembered, but this time, He revealed Jesus right there with me, with His arms around me the entire time.  Even though, I couldn’t feel Him, He was there.

What a difference that made for me; to know I wasn’t abandoned, that I was deeply cherished and loved even when I was feeling the exact opposite.

This experienced was allowed for God only knows why, but it has grown me closer to God and has opened the doors for me to help many people already as a result of this terrible event.  God works all things for good to those that love Him and are called according to His purpose. Romans 8:28

You are loved and cherished, no matter what anyone else says.  I hope you know this to the core of your soul.

Once you see who you truly are in Christ, those long lost passions will come back and God will reveal to you in much more clarity what your mission is.

John and Stasi Eldridge said it beautifully in their book Captivating “You will find that as God restores your heart and sets you free, you will recover long-lost passions, long forsaken dreams.  You’ll find yourself drawn to some vision for making the world a better place. Those emerging desires are invitations- not to rush out and attempt them immediately, that also is naive.  They are invitations to bring your heart to your Lover and ask him to clarify, to deepen, to speak to you about how and when and with whom. We love Frederick Buechner’s description when he writes “The place that God calls us is that place where the world’s deep hunger and our deep desire meet.” “

For I know the plans I have for you says the Lord, plans for good and not for evil, plans to give you a future and a hope.  Jeremiah 29:11

Action steps:

1.  Write down who you are when you see yourself in your mind/in the mirror.
2.  Spend time in prayer, asking God what He thinks, look up verses here http://ficm.org/about-us/#!/who-i-am-in-christ. Get a new image in your mind of yourself, as God see’s you. Write down who He says you are.
3.  Identify past hurts/soul wounds- ask God where He was? Uproot the lies you have believed about the situation and replace it with God’s truth. Ask God to shut the doors from the trauma, and to no longer be tossed to and fro from the past. Pray for your mind, will and emotions to be healed and made whole. -write it down.
4.  Ask God to awaken the calling He has on your life.