Tag: Who You Are In Christ

He Is…I Am Bible Study Week 3

Published on by Virginia2 Comments

Can you believe we’ve completed three weeks of our study into our identity already!?! I would love to hear what you have been learning, please consider leaving a comment so we can rejoice and celebrate with you.

Jesus will never love us more, He will not know us more than He does in this exact moment in time. It is also true that He will not love us or know us less than He does in this precise moment in time. There is nothing we can do to stop, thwart, or change His love for us. He will never stop loving because His heart never changes.

As Jesus is right now, He will always be. He will reveal different facets of Himself and His life; but He will remain the same. His heart, His character, His love does not shift or change. He remains the same forever, from forever past to forever future He is steadfastly faithful.

We are often so quick to think other people bring change and growth to our life. We think they make us flourish in ways we hadn’t before. We think, “Man, since this person has been in my life, I’ve acted differently.” Ergo, it’s the person.

But all growth and lasting, noticeable change comes only from Jesus. As He breaks–shatters–the strongholds, we are changed and that change lasts. He will continue to grow us, to change us, teach us but He will remain the same. He will never be surprised by anything, He will never know more or less than He does because through the shifting sands of time He remains steadfastly faithful.

When I look back over the last year I am amazed at the changes in my own heart. Most of them have been subtle, yet sublime, internal changes that are not readily noticeable. I haven’t experienced a sudden, remarkable change. One cannot point to a time and say, “One moment you were this and then BAM! You were like that!”

His truth has been cemented in the marrow of my soul. Things I had heard, things people had tried to teach me have been understood because of His love, His faithfulness. His truth has moved from an intellectual pursuit, staying all in the mind and never reaching a behavior-changing heart level, to being dropped and cemented in my heart and is now a truth lived out because Jesus’ Life lives in me.

He showed me the high price of surrender is not near as high as the cost of remaining in and with an illusion of control. Surrender to Him and His life is always worth the cost. Always.

So many times we fear a loss of who we are if we surrender to Him. We fear we will be a nobody, we will have no identity. We are afraid we will be an empty cup. We will have no life, we will be a nameless, faceless person in a crowd. We fear this because our identity is wrapped up in who we are not. We think we are the life, we think the cup makes the coffee great, not the coffee making the cup great.

Our identity is not in who we think we are. It is in who Jesus says we are! Our identity is not lost when we surrender who we are not to Who He is, it is realized! Only in this freely surrendering our identity to His truth are we changed and enabled to walk in our high places with Him.

In this surrender we see ourselves as we are–His–and that frees us to see others as they are, and allow them to be who Jesus created them to be. We let go of any illusion of control that says everyone must be just like us or they are wrong. It frees us of the trap of comparison. It frees us from so much self.

Shoot, it just dang frees us. From us. To Him. And that is true freedom.

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He Is…I Am Bible Study Week 2

Published on by Virginia1 Comment

A number of months ago there was a fire in the building next to their favorite Mexican restaurant. The restaurant was not completely destroyed in the fire but it did receive considerable smoke damage and so it was forced to close until repairs could be made.

I think this restaurant was one of those small, family-owned Mexican restaurants, that I picture in the seedier parts of town, but knowing them it wasn’t. Well, it probably was a small, family restaurant but not in the seedy parts of town.

All these months later the restaurant is still closed, repairs are being made slowly as time and funds allow. In the cleverest of stunts to be sure they were not forgotten they did a pop up restaurant. Limited menu, limited seating, limited time. We were there, standing in line with the rest of the crazies just wanting a taste of this iconic establishment.

They brought a couple bowls of chips and salsa, then just before our meal arrived the brought a bigger bowl of chips and what at first glance was a larger bowl of salsa. I thought it interesting, wondering why they brought the large bowl out last.

I wondered until I tried it. Then I realized this was not just a larger bowl of salsa, no, not at all. This was a bowl of sin-filled, and sinful, cheese sauce. The likes of which I’d never had before and likely won’t ever have again.

In the words of Lorelai Gilmore, “I want to take a bath in that sauce!”

My first taste was innocent, I was unaware of the cheesy goodness in that bowl. My next tastes were not so innocent. I took those knowing very, very well what it was and exactly what it would do to me. And I ate it as if I hadn’t eaten in months. I gorged myself on those chips and that sinful cheese dip.

And so it is with all of us. Believer or not, we sin. Sometimes it’s an innocent “oops”, we simply didn’t know, didn’t think. It’s still a sin, it still sent Jesus to the cross but there was no malicious forethought. Then we continue, because it tastes and feels so good. We know the consequences will not be good and we will regret it in five minutes so we keep eating it, keep trying to keep the consequences away. Until later that night, or the next morning when our over-indulgence has caught up with us.

Believing in Jesus gives us choices we didn’t have before. Before we are In Jesus and before His Life-Giving-Spirit indwells us, we have no choice to sin. It’s our identity. We are a sinner. But then Jesus comes in, places us in Him, indwells us, and suddenly we have a new identity, a new nature. New choices open up to us in an eyes-wide-open-in-wonder-type of way. Jesus now calls us saints.

If we are called saints,set apart ones, holy ones, how can we persist and insist on an identity that says we are a sinner? That the old identity, controlled by the enemy–who longs to keep us enslaved to do his bidding and not walk free as the creation Jesus says we are.

To say we are both “saint” and “sinner” is to be a schizophrenic Christian at best. A sinner will not produce good fruit, a pond will not give salt water.

A saint/sinner identity means you live a life of both blessing and cursing all at the same time. This is not possible! You either walk in your new identity of saint of your old identity of sinner, not both.

You are–if you are indwelt with the Breath of Jesus–a saint who sins, not a sinner who saints.

How can a Holy God live in something contrary to His character without changing the vessel He lives in? James 3:10-12 is speaking specifically about the tongue but I think it applies here since the tongues only speaks what is in the heart and mind.

Every sin is a choice, whether made consciously (like my continued eating of the cheese), or unconsciously, we make the choice to sin and sometimes our sinful reactions come out because we don’t realize how dead our old self is. We have choices in reaction and response. We cannot serve both God and satan, the Savior and self. We must choose one. We cannot justify our sinful choice with “that is just how I am. It’s who I am.” We have choices in our behavior, often we are ignorant about it or just too lazy to make the hard decision to change.

If Jesus calls us saints, why do we say we ain’t?
If Jesus calls us friends, why do we continue to try to make amends?

If Paul referred to himself as a saint, why do we think we are different than he was? What makes us so special to get to keep the sinner moniker when he discarded it?

In 1 Timothy 1:15 Paul refers to himself as the foremost sinner, or the worst of the bunch. The word translated “sinner” means “despiser of God.” I hardly believe Paul meant that to refer to himself post Damascus road! Peter comes right out and calls us a Holy People.

Holy people can not also be sinful people.

When we call ourselves a sinner, we are basing our identity on what we do. We are not what we do! We are still human beings and not human doings.

Maybe the issue is our feelings. We don’t feel holy so we aren’t holy. We sin still so we aren’t holy. We try so hard to make ourselves holy, because we are commanded to be holy as He is holy. We are commanded to be, we are not commanded to make ourselves be Holy. We are not commanded to make ourselves work hard to be–to feel–but just to be. This means our holiness is not by our own efforts! Be! Holy!

Be holy in Him. Rest in Him holiness that was imputed to you. Take His declaration of your position as holy and be in it.

Be holy because the God in you is holy.

He Is…I Am Bible Study Week 1

Published on by Virginia

So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and are of God’s household, having been  built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ  Jesus Himself being the cornerstone.

Ephesians 2:19-20

Our identity is not about us. As human beings we think everything is always all about us. Even as we proclaim, “It’s not about me!” Our lives and our actions tell a very different story.

I’ve spent some time at the beginning of this New Year contemplating Peter walking on the water. Peter was the rash, impulsive disciple, the one who said what others probably only thought but wouldn’t dare voice it. He is most famous for his denial of Jesus. One thing we fail to remember is all of the disciples were saying the same thing.

In Matthew’s retelling of Peter’s walking on water all of the disciples were in the boat. All of them were afraid of Him. Only Peter said, “Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water.” Only Peter was brave enough put one leg over the side of the boat, and then the other and walk on the waves to Jesus.

What a true picture of walking in our identity in Him! No one else was willing to get out of the boat and on the storm tossed sea.

Every prayer, every request, to “call me out to You on the water” is answered with “Come!” There is never a time He will say, “No. You stay where you are.” The deeper we go with Jesus, the more His life lives in and changes us, the more He feeds our desires. He is our desire. He is what our soul longs for. He plunges us into the depths of Him and with Him.

In our very human-ness we are incapable of doing anything (except sin) without Him. Hebrews 12:2 says, “Fixing our eyes on Jesus…”, dear soul, please hear this, you are not capable in and of yourself to keep your gaze fixed on Jesus. His life in you fixes your gaze. You do have a choice of focus. You can choose to allow Him to set and be your focus, or you can look to yourself.

He keeps our eyes fixed on Him. Alone and left to our own desires, our gaze flickers and falters, but His voice always reminds us that He is good. It reminds us of all He has done, and that it is all Him and not us. He tells us that without Him we are dead and the only safe place is to be in the wildness of Him and His waves.

We were all at one time strangers and aliens, we were all outside of His bubble. Jew and Gentile alike. Jesus blood bough redemption for all of us all at once. His blood brought us all near and made us fellow citizens and members of His household. It is His identity that changes our identity.

We are who we are in Him because of Him. Every facet of His identity touches us and changes us to reflect His life in us. Everything that He is speaks of who we are. And who we are in Him is not who we are apart from Him.

Everything that was true of you before you believed Him, before His life lived in you, is no longer true. Before Jesus, you were not enough. You were not good enough. You were without hope.

Now, Jesus in you is enough. Now Jesus is your hope. Because He is your hope you are not hopeless. Because He is your Daddy, you are not abandoned, you have a home, a family, a place you belong. And you belong with Him.

As you discover your identity in Jesus chances are you’ll be walking on the waves alone. But keep walking! Keep trusting! Keep listening!

Please remember to use the hashtag #HeIsIAm when sharing what you’re learning on social media. Your insights, your thoughts will minister to others.

Houston, We have a Problem

Published on by Virginia

Thank you to everyone who signed up to do the new Bible Study, “He Is…I Am, a Bible Study Journey to Hearing the Voice of Jesus”. Please believe me when I say your life will be radically changed. His voice speaking to our soul changes us in radical, wild, and wonderful ways.

It was brought to my attention that there was an issue with the Bible Study. I have corrected it and it is available for download again with the corrections.

You can either use the link. Or use the Contact Me! page and I’ll send you a pdf of the study.

Additionally, since this is the first Bible study I’ve written, I welcome your feedback! Please use the Contact Me! page to share your thoughts, what do you like/don’t like, what could be/should be different, what worked/what didn’t.

As you’re studying and hearing His voice, please share your thoughts on social media using the hashtag, #HeIsIAmBibleStudy. This will encourage others in their walk with Jesus.

Oh He is going to do so many amazing things in you! I am giddy that you’ve joined us!

Because He Is…I am.

Wildness to God’s Grace

Published on by Virginia5 Comments

There is a wildness and recklessness to God’s mercy and grace. Those who give into it are crazily changed by it. Life as normal ceases to be normal and takes on all the adventures of a roller coaster, without the terror, just the wide open smiles and laughter of drowning in His grace.


If someone had told me three years ago of this overwhelming sense of peace and joy, even in the midst of deep pain and hard, hard things, I would have laughed. If they had said the only way to get this was to give into the pain, surrender to it and the One who knows intimately the pain of suffering and loss, I would have thought them a stupid idiot.


So here I am. I am that person. I am telling you, in your place of pain, in your place of hard; there is joy, there is peace to be had in abundance as you surrender fully to the God who knows.


Then you will have to buckle your seat-belt because it will be a bumpy ride of grace and life and joy and peace and pain and hard and Jesus. He is in it all. You will find yourself months and years later, sitting outside on a frosty winter morning, tears running rivers down your cheeks as you reflect on His life in you, you’ll weep when you hear His voice again, you’ll feel the sting of tears in your eyes and nose as you contemplate how free life is, how He is doing things in and through you that boggle your mind. And then you’ll laugh with joy because you will know in the marrow of your soul that it is all Him, that truly without Him you would be so lost, so pain-filled. You would be defined by what you did, what was done to you, by anger, and bitterness.

Please know, dear soul, I do know pain. I know deep, heart-rending pain, pain so sharp you think you will die, and then you wish you would, or could. But you find, if you surrender in it and to it, there is a peace, a joy that comes with the pain.

It isn’t that I haven’t known despair or grief. It isn’t that my life has been miraculously made incredibly easy, it hasn’t been. There are still things that wound my heart and in my human-flesh-ness, makes me want to run so far, so fast in ten years time I’d still be running from all things painful.

But I’ve learned over the past months, that I’d be running from the very grace, the very peace and joy, the exact love I’m so desperate for. The road with Jesus might be bumpy, but it’s hell on wheels without Him.


Yes, the ride is bumpy, but it’s an exciting bumpy. It’s a life on the back of a Harley, wind whipping through your hair, eyes twinkling, mouth open in joyous laughter, arms straight up in gleeful celebration of all He is, all He has done.

Sacred in the Surrendered

Published on by Virginia2 Comments

As this year draws to a close, many people are looking back to see what they accomplished in the previous twelve months. They’re hoping to see that they fulfilled some purpose. There was a reason, a need, for them. They also are looking ahead to see if their life will have purpose and meaning in the next twelve months.

We all want our life to mean something, to count for something. Too often we fear it doesn’t. We fear we have real purpose in life, so we have to grab it by the horns with gusto and search out our purpose for breathing.

Could I tell you something?

Jesus. Always was. Always is. Always will be. We exist for His pleasure. He has a plan and a purpose for every person. No one is born apart from His plan.

Each one of us is born on purpose and with a purpose that God designed for us. He purposes our birth, our death, and all the tiny moments in-between. He did all of this planning and purposing before the foundation of the world. It is His life that wills and works in us to fulfill His plan.

It’s all about Him.

Through our surrendering to Him–His Life in us–He works His plan and purpose according to His will in us. He has made so we don’t have to find our purpose, our passion. We just need to surrender our lives to Jesus on the altar. He, then, works in and through us freely.

So all of our lives; every facet, every component, every minute detail, is sacred. Nothing is secular, everything is sacred because everything is about Jesus. There are no secular jobs for the indwelt believer.

Every thing becomes sacred in surrender to the Savior.

In our strength alone, everything we deem sacred becomes secular. When we muster our own strength and minister in that place of self, we say, in essence, “it’s okay, God, I’ve got this one”, our ministry has ceased to be ministry and has become simply our vocation and no longer sacred.

The difference is Jesus.
The difference is always Jesus.
The sacred becomes secular when Jesus is relegated to the periphery.
The secular becomes sacred with Jesus at the center of it all, doing it all.
The secular becomes sacred though surrender;
The sacred becomes secular through self.

You were born on purpose, with a purpose according to the plan of God. He knew exactly when you would be born, He knew your struggles, your strengths, your joys, your sorrows. He knew all of you intimately before the world was created.

If you are indwelt with the Life of Jesus, you don’t have to worry and fret, or work so hard to discover your passion, your purpose. You just have to surrender to His Life in you. He will accomplish His purpose through you and in you. He knows what His plan is and He knows what your year will bring. He knows the high points and He is intimately acquainted with each of the low points already. He is already there. His plan and His purpose for your life will be revealed as you surrender.

How Do You Surrender?

It seems so simple and easy to just say, “all you have to do is surrender”. It is almost like saying, “All you have to do it sacrifice your firstborn.” It often feels that wrong and scary too.

Surrender comes as we lean into, press into Jesus for deliverance from our strongholds and then we walk in the freedom He brings.

I urge you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.

Romans 12:1

And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me.

Matthew 10:38

Surrender means death. When the Germans surrendered at the end of World War 1 and 2, their surrender said they were dying to their plan, their desires. They were admitting their defeat and weakness in the face of the stronger opponent. They laid down their weapons, and agreed to the terms of peace.

That is what we do. We die to our own will, our own desires. We confess to Jesus that our strength is weakness apart from Him. We acknowledge we have believed and lived lies about ourselves and Him.

It is in that place of hardest surrender that He takes over and we are set free. Free to be the people He created us to be in Him. He brings the plan, the purpose, the passion; He changes our secular into our sacred.

Because He is.

Published on by Virginia

I found an old journal the other day. As far as old goes, it’s not that old, a little less than two years. But as far as life goes, it could have been written a millennia ago.

A mentor gave me a stack of stripes of paper, each one having a name or attribute of Jesus written on it. She instructed me to pick 7 and focus on one each day of the week.

The strips were all laid out and slowly seven were chosen. The ones that jumped out at me, the ones I heard Jesus whisper, “Pick that one!”, the ones that seemed significant.

And really which ones don’t?

It’s an act of Jesus grace that He slowly unfolds and unfurls Himself for us and to us. He doesn’t expect us to fully grasp Him all at once. He knows Himself and our heart so intimately He knows just which facet of His character, His life we need in that exact moment.

And He meets us there with Himself. He always meets us. Always meets us where are, with what we need. And what we always need is Him. More of Him.

We need our understanding broadened. Our scope widened. We don’t love and serve a one-dimensional God, just as we are not one-dimensional people.

Seven little strips of paper. One steno pad full of 100 blank pages. One small, hopeful woman and one Mighty God.

Oh Lord, help me choose. Which parts of You do I need to know more right here, right now?  Which one is first, Jesus? Then second?

Then on down the line, I asked with each one. Until my first month was complete. The steno pad was opened and on the first page, blank, but full of hope and promise, I wrote the week and the day. I recorded there in ink Who my Jesus was and what that meant I am. The verse He put in my mind was penned there too.

And then on each page my heart soared as my hand scribbled His truth whispered on my heart, shouted in my mind.

It’s been two years almost since I started that journal. I have nearly filled those 100 pages with His Life, His Truth.

They’ve been filled with Him. His presence. His grace.

Here’s the funny thing. He is still speaking the same things to my heart today. Two years and He’s saying the same things. Is it because I’ve failed a test? I’ve failed to grasp the truth of Him?

No. His repeated teaching does not mean we are stupid. It shows His faithfulness. His repeated teaching does not mean we’re being punished because we screwed it all up again and failed Him again. It shows His great patience and love. It shouts of His knowing how we are made and the very realness of our enemy.

His repeated teaching is an act of His grace. It shines like a beacon of the Light of His Life.

Dear soul, please take these words with you into your new year. His repeated teaching is not a punishment, it’s grace. It’s His gift.

Finding Joy in Advent

Published on by Virginia

Joy. That somewhat illusive feeling we all want during the holidays. We look for it in the baking aisle of the grocery store. We hunt for it in the Christmas cards we send. We search for it in the shops as we purchase the perfect gifts for those we love. We pursue it in holiday greetings received.

We long to feel the increase of Joy. It seems though the more we pursue it, the more we chase it down it, the more it dances just out of our scope of vision.

Each year we promise ourselves and others that this year will be different. Our holiday will be different. We will be more at peace, we’ll get started early, we’ll be less stressed. We’ll be all of these just as soon as our holiday is picture perfect.

The more we try to make everything Pinterest perfect, the harder we endeavor to ensure everything looks like a magazine spread, the more our stress level rises and joy seems to fly out the window. We snap at our family, we walk over our friends. Our happiness quotient is reduced while our joy all but seems to disappear.

We complain to our friends that we’ve lost our joy and ask them to pray that we can find it again. We know just what we need to do to, it’s what we’ve always been told. From our earliest days, we’ve heard, Joy means Jesus first, Others second, Yourself last.

So we should feel the most joy at Christmas, right? It’s all about Jesus, and we spend an great amount of time and an even more exorbitant time and energy, to say nothing of money, on others. So joy should be in super abundance.

But it’s not.

Dear sweet reader, please know our joy does not disappear with the disappointments in the hard parts of the holidays. Our strongholds so often trip us up, yank us around this time of year. Expectations are through the roof, emotions are high, hurts run deep.

Every little thing threatens our carefully crafted dens of happiness, and topples joy. Joy dies in heaps of crumbled dreams and ashes. What is supposed to be the happiest time of the year, full of joy and good cheer, is anything but.

Unless good cheer is found in tears that run rivers down our cheeks. It’s in the gaping wounds of a heart that loves. If it’s found in the hurts from stronghold bumped and body-slammed.

But it’s not. We all know that. We all know Joy does not depend on our circumstances, that’s happiness. But how can we feel joy when life hurts and the tears flow? Is there joy to be found in the depths of our darkest despair? Those dark nights of our soul? When we hurt and our cries seem to hit a silent heaven when what we think we need is a silent night, not a silent Savior.

We sing “the Joy of the Lord is our strength” but what does that mean? How is His Joy our strength? We are all so quick to say He is our strength but we are so quick to do and live all in our own.

We wonder why on earth life hurts so much. Life is good. It’s a grand life and then POW! We’re in agony. Someone said something, or didn’t say something and now our life hurts.

He is our strength. His life in us sustains us. He carries us to and through the painful, and pain-filled times. Have you ever noticed the Spirit led Jesus to the wilderness to be tempted? We think if life hurts, when we’re tempted we must be the most wicked, evil, vile person.

But what if, just as Jesus was led into the wilderness, we’re being led to and through our times of pain so we can experience and learn to walk in His strength?

In our times of pain, when our strongholds are body-slammed, we focus on ourselves, our hurt, our pain. We wrap it tightly around us like a heavy winter coat hoping to keep out winter’s chill. But it never works.

We are to embrace the pain, but not like that. Not wear it like a suit of armor. Our pain doesn’t protect us from more pain, it merely pushes those arrows in a little deeper.

We are to embrace them, not shun them, but in them open up to the One who can free us from the pain. He can take our frozen feelings, shine the Light of His life in them, speak His peace, His joy into them and we are set free.

Free to live, free to dance in the joy of His strength. We were not ever designed to walk in our strength, our power. We can’t. We aren’t enough. He is.

This Advent, please, trade your robes of sadness and pain for His shining robes of Joy.

That Sweet-sweet Spot

Published on by Virginia4 Comments

Yesterday our pastor opened up the service for people to share how they have found sweetness of life in and with Jesus. As those around me shared their thoughts, I cast about in my mind for one. What would I say was the sweetness I have found because of Jesus?

I was in a near panic when nothing really came to mind that I deemed worth sharing. Everything sound like a trite, pat answer. It sounded like I knew all the Christian-ese to make me look superior to everyone else.

But not only that. I’ve been attacked on social media and in my own personal life on planet earth. I’ve been walking a bit wounded and angry. Mostly wounded but the wounds come out in anger. I did not want to open myself up to anymore hurt, anymore angry feelings. I didn’t want to give anyone a chance to tell me how wrong I am about everything.

So I kept quiet. But I also kept praying. Because I really wanted to know and I really wanted to hear it straight from the lips of Jesus. I needed to know like I need coffee in the morning and like I need sleep at night. I needed to know He really loved me and we had a sweetness of relationship.

Because some relationships–dear relationships—relationships I love and need like air—-are still in difficulty. They are still broken. There is a still a very painful, misunderstood silence to them. The sweetness has for a time seemed to go out of those relationships, there is just an almost bitter sweetness to them. Sweet because of what they were and bitter because of wondering if we’ll ever get back to that.

There is one particular relationship that is broken, not beyond repair but still broken. This relationship was, no IS, so very dear to me. In this relationship I found a sweet place of acceptance.

“Hey! We fight like we’re brother and sister – awesome!”
“Why is that awesome?”
“Because it means we feel comfortable enough with each other to be real and argue.”
“I’m sorry I fought with you.”
“And me you.” 

That is also one of my sweet places of life with Jesus, or rather the sweetness of having His life living in and through me. Finally my heart finds a home, it finds the acceptance and place of belonging it has always looked for and eternally needed. I am fully heard, completely seen, always accepted, and so lavishly loved.

It means I have a family. It means I belong to someone. It means I don’t have to look to myself to meet my own needs. It means I don’t have to be in control. It means I’m not at fault for every sin since Eve ate the fruit in the garden. It is that I no longer have to feel condemnation because I can’t and don’t do it all.

The sweetness is this abandoned, abused little girl gets to belong to someone forever. It is knowing fully that even if everyone left me I would still have Jesus and He is enough, even for that.

That luscious sweet spot that says my needs are met fully by someone else and I don’t have to work and manipulate to get them met on my own and in my own strength.

It means I have a whole new life. The old is so completely gone. It means everything is made new. Old attitudes? They’re made new. Old thought patterns and heart attitudes? They don’t affect me anymore. They are dead and I’m, I’m more alive than ever.

The sweetness is I am free. I am free from; death, sin’s consequence, sin, sin’s power, the grave. But I am also free to live! To love. To have joy, peace, kindness.

LIFE IS OH SO MUCH SWEETER WITH JESUS. 

Why You Are Not A Mess

Published on by Virginia3 Comments

A few weeks ago I was browsing my Twitter feed somewhat mindlessly reading when I saw another one of those tweets. You know, those tweets that sound spiritual but they just hit you wrong. They might be a true statement at first glance but there is just something not quite right about it.  You’ve seen the statement before, you might have believed it but now it’s sitting on your heart like bad pizza.

There’s something wrong with that tweet. You might not know what, but it’s just not right, not right at all. You try to read further but you just can’t get past it, you find yourself scrolling back up to it and nope, it’s still not right.

You might do this a time or fifty before you distract yourself by doing something else, like the church bulletin for example, or maybe scrubbing the toilet. As you’re scrubbing away this message keeps taunting your mind, you’re mulling it over and over. Your mind is mauling it like a dog mauls a bone.

Then when it hits you, you sit back wondering why on earth it took you so long to realize that the reason the statement seems wrong is because it IS  wrong?

“I am a {hot} mess, yet deeply loved by God.” 

It’s wrong because it is a lie.

It’s like one of those questions on a personality quiz, “are you this and/because of this?” Your answer might be yes and no, or no and yes. One part is very true, but the other part is not even remotely true.

The only part of the sentence that is true is “…deeply loved by God.” That part is truer than true.

As believers in Jesus we are so adept at Christianizing lying to ourselves. We say things about ourselves to ourselves and others that sound really, really good, but are, in fact, really, really bad.  We lie to ourselves because that is what we hear from others. They lie about who they are and who we are. We believe them and so we perpetuate the lie with our own mouths.

People! This should not be.

You might be wondering why I don’t like the statement, “I am a mess, yet deeply loved by God.” I mean, it sounds good, it sounds right. It sounds humble. It sounds holy. It sounds true.

But it isn’t. You see, “I am a mess” is an identity statement. You are telling everyone who you are, and who you are is a mess.

No. Who you are is not a mess.

Why do I say that and how can I say that? I don’t even know you. That is true. But I do know Jesus. I know His nature.

I know He is not a mess. Not even close to a mess. He is the furthest thing from a mess.  And to call yourself a mess is a lie and it denies the power of the cross and the power of the Blood of Jesus that was shed for you.

I know you are not a mess because I know Jesus is not a mess. If you are in Him, His Spirit, His nature, His Life dwells in you. In your flesh, in your sinful state before coming to His cross to receive His grace and His nature freely bestowed on you, you are very much a mess. You are without help and without hope.

But you are not. Because you are in Him.

Do you want to know what else you are?

  • You are chosen. (1 Peter 2:9, John 15:16, Colossians 3:12, 1 Thessalonians 1:4)
  • You are holy. (1 Peter 2:9, Colossians 3:12, Ephesians 1:4)
  • Loved and beloved (1 Thessalonians 1:4, Romans 5:8, Jude 1)

This list is by no means exhaustive. You are so much more than you think, so much not a mess. You’re chosen, you’re adopted, you’re declared Holy, blameless, you’re sealed in Him and with Him.

This is your identity! And your identity matters. Because you will walk out whatever you believe about yourself.  So choose now to believe the truth.

And the truth is; in Jesus there are no messes, only messengers with messages. Don’t give the wrong one, to yourself or to others.