It is a journey and I am super glad that you are on it. Last week’s blog received such an overwhelming response and I am so encouraged by the texts I got. This week, we continue on the road of discovering God and ourselves, by focussing on Ephesians 1: 4-6.
4 For He chose us in Him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight. In love 5 He predestined us for adoption to sonship[b] through Jesus Christ, in accordance with His pleasure and will— 6 to the praise of His glorious grace, which He has freely given us in the One He loves.
Like our last article, personalise these verses by putting your name. The main word that I want to stress on in the verse 4 is “chose”. He chose YOU and ME to be holy and blameless, way before we were born. It is not earned; it is not based on what we do or our qualifications. God truly wanted us—just as we are. What an amazing truth! He chose us because we are important to Him; because He LOVES us. And this is mentioned in the next verse which starts with, “In love”. The choice was rooted in love—His unconditional love. The next powerful word in this passage is “adoption”. We are adopted by God as His sons and daughters. This means that we have the privileges, the blessings, the inheritance that is due to the child of the Most High. In short, we are royalty because our Father God is the King.
Let us move to another passage from Romans 8:15-17
15 The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by Him we cry, “Abba,[b] Father.” 16 The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. 17 Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in His sufferings in order that we may also share in His glory
I don’t know if there is any other scripture that clearly tells us that we are not slaves. Sons and daughters—that is what we are called. We are co-heirs with Christ because of the beautiful redemption we received at the cross of Calvary.
I am sure that most of you have heard these verses at some point of life. I have heard it over and over again, through my childhood, teens, and adulthood years. I accepted Jesus many moons ago and I love Him. But I have had seasons when I felt unworthy and a slave to fear. All this because of lies that were spoken to me, negative perceptions that were made to seem like it is normal and theories that acted as a deterrent impeding my way to God’s throne room. Unfortunately, there are many believers who live with a sense of unworthiness and what I would like to tag as “orphan mentality”. I had it for many years but God, in His grace, helped me to identify it as He gently called it out. There are a lot of ugly repercussions to this mentality—bitterness towards others and self, insecurity, unexplainable fears, aloofness, the need to impress others and prove themselves, low self-esteem. It doesn’t end here, there are a lot more in the list of dysfunctional behaviours. This is mainly because of the fact that we tend to evolve over the years, thanks to the distorted image we have in our head about God and ourselves, and the regular dose of lies that we are fed. I am sure you can relate to some or all of the aforementioned behaviours. I can! I am not here to judge or condemn but I believe that the best way of creating a lasting change is by being honest, both to God and yourself. So, let us pause and take a minute or two to be honest with ourselves.
-Do I have an orphan mentality?
-What are some of the behavioural patterns that I have seen in my life?
-Am I letting the lies around me influence my faith and identity in Christ?
Now what? — we carry these behaviours because we do not truly know who we are in Christ. We have an identity crisis. It is time to feed the truth about our identity into our system. Our body, mind and spirit—all three need to be given high doses of the truth on a daily basis. We are not orphans and neither are we slaves! We are children of God and we have freedom through the sacrifice of Christ.
What a privilege! Hold on to this privilege and put a stop to living like an orphan. Break free from the leash of dysfunctional behaviours and walk in the freedom of redemption in Christ. As we walk together on the road to our Father’s throne room, in a quest to find Him and ourselves, let us actively take steps in expectation that God will come through for us every time we call on to Him. Let us hold on to the fact that we are not alone in this journey—that His Spirit is our navigator. And most of all, let us be honest; it brings about radical change. The Holy Spirit not only helps us identify our issue but also enables us to resolve it. Ask Him to help you today. Never forget, you are part of God’s family—deeply loved, greatly blessed and highly favoured. God’s love is not based on how much you do or not do for Him.
Trust me when I say that there is truly freedom and fulfilment in living as the daughter of the Most High God. My constant prayer is that, with every passing day, the gap between, how I view myself and how God views me, would lessen. As I live out my identity in Christ, I walk in the fullness of all that He created me to be.
Stay tuned as we continue in this journey of finding our true identity.
Consider this:
This week, I want you to write an honest list of things you battle with. Here is a sample.
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Lies |
Truth |
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List out your fears, the lies you have told yourself or others have told you, the false facts about God and your negative behavioural patterns and the corresponding truth. Go ahead and write seven of them, and start striking the lies out one by one every day for a week.