The Truth About Our Identity – The Finale

From SHE – Girls Night Out and the preceding blogs preceding this one.

5. Everyone must discover their identity. How did you encourage your kids and support your husband in finding their identity in Christ?

That’s a good question. Honestly, my husband and I, both set the example in finding our family’s identity. We got hold of the “Word” movement a long time ago. We insisted on believing that if God’s Word says it, we believe it and that settles it! We were adamant that what we spoke had to be positive, optimistic, and faith-filled and truth inspired.

When our kids said, “I can’t!” We pulled out what God’s Word said in Philippians 4:13 — “You can do all things through Christ who gives you strength.” When our son was in Cub Scouts and they were selling Scout-a-Rama tickets, we spoke “YOU CAN through Christ who strengthens you” and then we took him door-to-door selling tickets. Yes, he won the grand prize. And today he is a successful entrepreneur and teaching those principles to his children.

Our tiny, but scrapy and fierce, basketball-handler daughter and 9th grader, wanted to play on her high school’s varsity girls’ team. My husband would say to her those words “You can do all things through Christ who gives you strength” plus, “If you want to be the best, you must do your best. Get out there on the court and don’t come in until you’ve made 40 free throws.” Yes, she became a starter on the Varsity Team and the announcers called her the Tasmanian Devil because of her ballhandling skills, her three-point shots and the fact that she could slip around those bigger girls like no one else. Today, both of our kids are strong and successful in business, ministry, and in their personal lives and continue to believe “nothing is impossible with God”.

When tough times came to us financially, we believed God was working it out for our good. When my husband got so very, very sick, not one time in that season did we ever think that he would die from the illness. We confessed healing. We stood in faith for healing. People around the world were praying for us. He had six surgeries and you know what — at the end of the day, November 16th, he got to go home to heaven. It was God’s plan. I got to be his midwife that day and coach him into heaven.

Were our prayers answered? Oh, yes, they were. He received the ultimate healing when he got to go home to be with Jesus. And I was not just a surviving widow but a thriving widow because of the joy in my heart and the confidence of who I am in Christ.

I know I was called to be on this panel-of-one because of knowing my identity in Christ – the great I-AM-dentity. And you will receive that same I-AM-dentity too when you completely let go and let God mastermind your life.

The Bible tells us in John 10:10 – “The devil came to steal, kill, and destroy.” And that includes identity theft. The devil wants to steal our identity. He wants to steal our joy, and he wants to rob us of understanding who we are and what God created us to do. The rest of that verse says — “But Jesus came to give us abundant life!”

So, when joy isn’t a part of our life, then we know who stole it and when we are happy, carefree, and joy-filled, we know that we are living in Jesus’ abundance that He died on the cross to give us. It’s not life in abundance when we’re comparing ourselves to others. It IS abundant life when we have gratitude and thank God for giving us what we have.

We can shift identity theft to identity in Christ by saturating our minds with the truth of God’s Word. It is filled with reminders of His unconditional love for us. He says: “You are fearfully and wonderfully made (Psalm 139:14). He says “Nothing can separate you from His love” (Romans 8:35). It’s time to stop letting the enemy steal our identity. We are God’s masterpiece. It’s time to believe it! We are insulting our Creator when we don’t appreciate Who we are in Him.

And, lastly, we must put a gate with a lock on it on our mind. When the enemy comes in to tell you you’re not enough, pretty enough, capable enough, wise enough, then remind him of his destiny. WE win. He loses. We are conquerors. He is our defeated foe.