“Fervent prayer keeps your true identity in focus.” p57

About a year ago I had the opportunity to speak to a local MOPS group. I shared about some of the significant events in my life had shaped who I saw myself as. Embarrassed when I was hurt in an accident before 1st grade one morning and the entire class saw me cry. Shunned and alone as I spent a Friday night by myself at home in 6th grade while all of my friends attended the biggest boy/girl party ever.

Rejected when I didn’t make the cheerleading squad, ashamed when I got pregnant before marriage. Resentful and angry when life didn’t come easily or go as planned…

I shared that those defining moments had shaped me and although there were also good moments in there, I had spent way more time focusing on the hurt…believing that those specific events made me who I was.

And then one day I was reading Mark 5:21-43. It is one of my favorite stories in the Bible. Here is a women who had been labeled unclean, plagued with a blood disorder for 12 years. Kept separate from others, some people even speculate that because of the culture at the time she wasn’t allowed to be spoken to. Imagine that loneliness. And then she hears about this Jesus, a healer and she wonders if He might heal her too. So she pushes her way through a crowd so that she can touch the hem of his garment.

And immediately she is healed. Jesus knows that power has left Him and asks who touched Him. She comes forward and admits it was her and the first thing that Jesus does is call her Daughter.

Jesus looked at this woman, a woman that had been shunned and left alone, and he saw His daughter.

I like to believe that when He looks at me He sees the same…..

The enemy would like me to believe that what God sees are all my failures. And for a long time I believed the lies. I was only as good as my worst mistake. I wasn’t worth saving. Priscilla says this “He’s (the enemy) working overtime to keep your identity masked, to keep the truth from coming out – that you are indeed alive and free and empowered by God’s own Spirit to fight victoriously against him. He’d rather conspire to keep you in a constant state of mourning, grieving over who you wish you were, instead of relishing who you really are, exacerbated by insecurity and crippled by self-doubt.” p57 

So how do we counteract the lies? Because if you are anything like me, they will come and they will threaten to bring you down into the pit. There are many things we can do, but since this is a study on prayer I am going to start there.

We need to be praying that God would pour out His Truth onto us. Open our eyes to who we are because of Him. And when we spend time in God’s Word our eyes will continue to be opened to the character of God and His love for us.

One of the ladies from my Bible study gave me this bookmark that is titled My Identity – Who I am in Christ. It is filled with Bible verses that help point us to those specific places in the Word that speak to the truths that we are accepted, secure and significant.

I keep it in my Bible as a reference for those times that I need to be reminded of who I really am. Yes I mess up and make mistakes. More often than I would like to admit, but those mistakes do not embody who I am. I have to remember that when God looks at me, He sees His daughter. Jesus paid the sacrifice for my sins and because of that amazing gift, my identity will forever remain in who I am because of Him. Praise Jesus for that!

Lord, what a gift You gave us through Your Son. Most days I can’t understand Your love for me, but I am ever grateful. Give us eyes to see and hearts to understand that our identity remains in who You created us to be. Help us to walk in that full potential. Learning from our sins and mistakes but not burdened down in the pit because of them. Thank you for your love Lord. In Jesus Name, Amen.