Declaration: I Am Who Christ Says I Am

One thing I’ve learned in the years since I called myself a Christian (pretty much only because that’s what my parents told me I was) is that my identity in Christ is literally EVERYthing. It’s just not enough to say you’re a Christian….it requires understanding of Whose you are….and then what that makes you as His child.

Back when I was a child, my mom took us to church for a few years. Dad never went. After I was ten years old, my mom stopped going too, most of the time, so I went with a friend of mine. We never really talked about (or lived) like Christians in our home. My parents had different beliefs, so it was a sore spot, I think.

I used to love going to church….it felt like a place of peace amidst the turbulence. It was a happy place, and a place where I was first introduced to verses of happiness and joy….like this favorite: “This is the day which the Lord has made; Rejoice and be glad in it!”

I feel so very blessed to have had this early foundation in our Methodist church even though I stopped attending by fifth grade and didn’t attend again for a couple of decades. I probably also have my great-grandma, Mimi, to thank as she handed me a pristine, small white King James Bible when I was ten, and told me simply to, “Read it.”

I think that my having this little introduction into God’s goodness has been very powerful in my adult life, even though I was lost for years. It may be what drew me back after all the years. I don’t know for sure, but what I DO know is that before I found out what my identity in Christ means and that I truly AM who HE says I am, I had a very different life of struggle, despair, and some really dark times.

When you’re in the pits, and the days are blackened with dark clouds, and there is no relief coming…it’s not a good place to be. It’s terrifying. It feels like you’re on your way out. Literally.

I digress…..

Knowing what Christ says you are guides you in all things, and I can honestly say in the twelve years since I started learning about my true identity that my life has completely turned around, my thinking has completely turned around, and all areas of my life have improved (turned around) in very significant ways.

I’m not perfect. But, I am a work in progress……

I was 45 years old when I first heard the words, “my identity in Christ” even though I had identified as a Christian since childhood. When the Christian therapist I was working with after a devastating divorce (I was literally homeless, unemployed, and bankrupt as a single parent) asked me if I knew what this meant….I looked at her blankly. I had no idea. At. All.

This was a point in my life where I was totally crushed, spiritually, mentally, and emotionally. I was at the bottom. I was desperate for help. Heck! I needed to get my teaching job back, a career I had thoughtlessly thrown away because of the whims of my ex-husband. I was in terrible pain. I was grieving over so much.

But that’s a story for another day…..

I am forever grateful for that dark time in my life because when you have no place to go but up, you emerge as a brand new person IF you have some tools. Luckily, I did have the Holy Spirit. I think God might just have had to put me in that place so that I could figure things out and find out who I am…..and I’m so glad for it!

Anyhow, one day, this young Christian therapist, who was interning at our church counseling office for free, handed me a flyer with a bunch of Bible verses that explained what having an identity in Christ was supposed to mean to me.

I’ll admit….I didn’t quite get it. Coincidentally, my church actually had a class on what an Identity in Christ means shortly after this, and I was one of the first to sign up! Something (I’m sure the Holy Spirit) told me I needed to understand this, and FAST.

Lightbulb after lightbulb went off in my head during that class, as my identity—-who and what I was in the world——cleared up for me like black clouds being blown from the sun. These rays of light literally poured down on me, and I saw myself differently (and more beautifully) than I had in my entire life.

Sometimes I forget about my true identity, and then I have to work out who I am again. Worshipping, journaling, reading good books, and studying the Word all bring me back. Although I have an understanding, now, I am at a point where I want to etch this understanding into my soul so deeply that I never waiver or falter again.

I’ve decided to do a Daily Declarations challenge, and this is based on a book I’m reading right now: More Power to You: Declarations to Break Free from Fear and Take Back Your Life by Margaret Feinberg.

I’ll be sharing a declaration a week, here on Dwell on Lovely, along with my thoughts and challenges as I go through this challenge for myself.

The way the book works is you read through the list of declarations each day, then focus on one per week. You try to see it in your daily life, in your actions, and in the actions of others. I’ll be using some of the declarations in the book, but also adding my own, too.

The first declaration I chose is: I am who Christ says I am.

Isn’t that simple…..yet so powerful?

I think the Book of Ephesians is my favorite for really outlining who we are in our Father and in Jesus. In Ephesians 1:1-14, I (and you) learn that:

(Please insert you and the proper verb in the sentences, because these statements definitely apply to you, too!)

1) I (you) am (are) holy and blameless before Him (Eph. 1:4)

2) I am a child of God (Eph. 1: 5)

3) I am redeemed through His blood and forgiven of all my trespasses (Eph. 1:7)

4) I am His heir (Eph. 1:11)

5) I am sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, and this is a pledge of my inheritance, and I belong to God (Eph. 1:13-14)

6) I have been given a spirit of wisdom and revelation because I know Him, and He is my Father (Eph. 1:17)

7) I am alive in Christ! While once I was dead, walking according to the moods of the world, where the enemy abides, I now know I have life! (Eph. 2:1-2)

I’m sure there are probably some things I’ve missed in this first chapter of Ephesians, and it certainly bears reading over and over again.

And then there’s Colossians 3:3, which tells me that I was dead and that now I am alive in Christ. When I look back at my life prior to this understanding of my identity, I truly was dead. I was spiritually dead, which made me just: plain old dead.

I was searching in all the wrong places for what I needed: love, acceptance, visibility, strength, power, peace, security, and more.

Once I learned to turn to God for these things and ALL things, my life changed. I no longer worry about who I am in the world….and it’s so freeing.

I’m in some business groups, and one of the things I hear often from fellow entrepreneurs (especially women) is that they struggle with feeling invisible in the world. I know how this feels, because I, too, used to feel this way. But these days, I KNOW I’m visible to the One who is most important: My Father in Heaven. Nothing else matters.

I try to remember this and have it be the answer to the things I choose to do or not do, as well as the ways I think.

This doesn’t mean I don’t worry (although we are commanded not to) and fret sometimes…but now I can quickly come back to the meaning of what my identity in Christ is—-and who He says I am. I don’t need to worry. I don’t need to live in fear or shame. So. I don’t. It really is a pretty simple decision.

And…I know I’m not invisible.

**I’m NOT saying this is easy to do, by the way. It’s difficult. However, with some effort, and repetition of important declarations over your life, I think it’s going to keep getting easier and easier.

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Jesus also tells me that I am chosen of God, I am holy, I am beloved. Also, that I have a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience.

Wow! I love this, don’t you?

I am kind. I am patient. I am humble. I am gentle. I am compassionate.

I have to admit: I don’t live up to these descriptors all the time, being human after all, but I can tell you that the more I declare this over my life; the more I listen to what God says; the more I know who I am in Him….well, the more I AM what He says I am.

And…I know that if I repent, which means to literally change my mind and therefore my actions, I am forgiven. Always, I am forgiven.

So, this is the first declaration I’m sharing with you, here. I hope you’ll let me know what you think, and how you apply this to your life.

I love you,

Heidi

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