The Power of Identity
This week has been one of those weeks where I have been putting off work for a while now but we are to the point where there’s no more time for procrastination. You may have felt this with a work project, hard conversation, for me it has been school work. I’m so grateful to be in my last semester but sometimes that comes with a lack of motivation lol
So here I am at the beginning of the week, cramming in information for my test that’s at the end of the week. I don’t normally worry about tests, probably to a fault, but this morning in my class I started to feel the anxiousness begin to rise. Irrational thoughts like “what if i made it this far only to fail and have to stay an extra semester,” “what if there’s no way to remember the information on my study guide, I should’ve started weeks ago,” and you know how the worries go on.
As I was over thinking those things in my mind I felt the Lord in my heart say “I have made you for this.” The moment I received those words, the worries began to cease. My test is on the communication theories we have been studying and I was reminded how God tailored my mind in a way that loves to learn how to better communicate with others. I am not walking into foreign waters but I am walking down a path that God created my mind to understand. And should I re-word to say “You are not walking into foreign land but down a path that God created you for.”
When I took the identity I felt about myself, which was the identity of not being capable, and made it submissive to the identity I have in Christ, which is the identity of being fully capable, I was able to be filled with his confidence. As I was studying for my test I came across a few points that stood out to me. 2 of these 7 principles spoke directly to the identity trap we can fall into.
The first principle is “The Principle of Defining Oneself.” It shares that If you define yourself a certain way, you tend to behave in ways that support that definition. A paraphrase of this might say “when you let who you think you are have more power than who you really are.” There is a lot of danger but a lot of power in this principle. The danger is If you view yourself as unworthy then you are going to behave in a way that shows the lack of worth you have for yourself. You will let people manipulate you, hurt you, take advantage of you because of the lack of self worth in your perspective. The truth we must remember is that our identity is not who we say we are but who God says we are.
The power in this principle is when you view yourself as worthy you live a life that is also worthy. This looks like having confidence from the Lord and getting to share his kindness with others because you know where your worth is rooted in. Ephesians 2:6 reveals this worth as it says, “For he raised us from the dead along with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms.” Our call to live this out is in Ephesians 4:1 that says, “Live a life worthy of your calling for you have been called by God.” Your identity in Christ is worthy and as you believe that about yourself, the manner in which you live will too.
The next principle says “personal goals are directly related to how you view yourself.” The Scarlet paraphrase of this would say “how you view yourself dictates the goals you are willing to set.” As I read that principle I immediately thought about how many goals we sell short because of the way we view our capability. I know I can do this. I can find it easy to feel like I am so small that there is no way that I could achieve big goals. That is the voice of the enemy trying to hold back the anointing power over us.
Isaiah 61:1 says “the spirit of the Lord is upon me, the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor.” It wasn’t just Isaiah that God created to do great things it was you to. He created you in his image (Genesis 1:27), therefore your identity is in him, it’s a part of him. When we truly believe that our identity is in him we will see it in our actions, in our goals, and in the life we get to live boldly for his glory.
XX Scarlet
