So Long Not Good Enough! I’m Embracing My True Identity
Embracing my true identity began with a decision to let go of everything that connected me with my old life and my old ways. Basically, the way I determined what I needed to let go of was anything that contradicted what God’s word said.
So let me reassert what I established in last week’s blog post, Almost Every Woman Identifies To Some Degree With Not Good Enough. Without Christ, we are not good enough. But in Christ, we identify with Him and His identity. No more Not Good Enough!
Embracing My True Identity
To embrace our true identity, a few things need clarifying. Let’s start with asking yourself the following questions.
1) Does identifying with “not good enough” come natural to me?
2) Do I feel like I always end up with the short end of the stick?
3) Do life situations always cause me to question myself?
4) When anything negative happens in my life, do I look at myself as the basis for those negative experiences?
If you answered yes to any one of the questions above, it’s time to take the necessary steps of redefining and embracing my true identity.
4 Steps to redefining your identity:
1) Know that you are “In Christ.”
To be “In Christ” means that you have invited Jesus into your heart and life as Lord and Savior at some initial point in your life. It is so important to know that we had that initial encounter with Jesus. Without assurance that this first step happened, we are AT RISK.
Without embarking on a journey with Jesus based on the understanding of our own sin, weaknesses, and need, we are bound to our own goodness. And as Isaiah tells us, our own goodness will never be enough.
But we are all like an unclean thing,
and all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags;
Isaiah 64:6a
Without taking this first step of accepting Jesus as Lord and Savior, we are susceptible to a false understanding of our true self. The world will determine for us why and how we are not good enough. So until our belief and identity is rooted in Jesus the shifting tides of people’s praises and criticisms will continually move us from here to there. That is why James wrote:
But let him ask in faith, with no doubting,
for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind.
James 1:6
Allow me to ask you these 2 questions:
Are you In Christ?
Is Jesus your Lord and Savior?
If you answered yes, then you have what you need for the right and true foundation of your identity. Everything about redefining your identity hinges on whether or not Jesus lives in Your heart. So if you aren’t sure or have any questions at all, this is too important to get wrong.
If you want to ask Jesus to come into your heart as Lord and Savior, take a moment to click on this Finding God link to guide you in that initial step.
2) Understand that You were created in God’s image.
When we have accepted Jesus as our Lord and Savior, He makes us new and transforms us into His own image.
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come:
The old has gone, the new is here!
2 Corinthians 5:17
In Christ, we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory,
just as by the Spirit of the Lord.
2 Corinthians 3:18
We often display characteristics of our earthly parents. Maybe our physical appearance looks a lot like our siblings. The reality is that once we experience our spiritual rebirth, our spiritual image is like God’s image, but we experience that as a transformation process. As we walk with Jesus, He transforms us more and more into His image.
3) Choose to exchange Your old identity for your true “in Christ” identity.
How we previously identified ourselves in relation to our own goodness, our own mistakes, the world’s standards, and other people praises or criticisms, are false narratives. Our identity is in Christ. We are who Christ says we are. No one else has the right or authority to determine our identity.
Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name,
he gave the right to become children of God
John 1:12
And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying,
"All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.
Matthew 28:18
Plain and simple. We are who God says we are based on His all-encompassing, omnipotent authority.
4) Learn what God says about you.
How can we exchange a lie for truth without knowing truth? Christian women fall prey to the devil’s lies far too often because of a lack of Biblical knowledge.
The Bible is our weapon and defense against the lies of our spiritual enemy.
If we, as Christian women, want to live victorious and in our true identity, we must read, study, and know the Bible. God gave us a great gift to know Him and what He says and thinks about us. He tells us who we are, and how He sees us. Here is a snippet of our true “In Christ” identity.
In Christ we are victorious.
For whatever is born of God overcomes the world.
And this is the victory that has overcome the world--our faith.
1 John 5:4
In Christ we are righteous.
For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us,
that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
2 Corinthians 5:21
In Christ we are blessed, chosen, holy, blameless, predestined, adopted, accepted, loved, redeemed, and forgiven.
Click here to read👉🏻Ephesians 1:3-14
Embracing My True Identity 21 Day Challenge
I want to leave you with an Embracing My True Identity Challenge based on identity truths found in Ephesians 1:3-14. Since habits form in 21 days, let’s take 21 days to stick with this challenge. This way you will get in the habit of believing the truth about who you are in Christ.
Day 1 - Hand write Ephesians 1:3-14 in your journal or on a piece of paper that you can use every day this week and into the future in your prayer time.
Day 1 - 21 - Read out loud your handwritten Ephesians 1:3-14.
Day 1 - 21 - Ask God to replace any lies you have believed about yourself with your true identity as seen in Ephesians 1:3-14.
Day 21 - Write out your own “I am” statement based on every identity you discover in that passage. Carry it with you everywhere you go. Recite it over and over until that truth takes such deep root in your heart, that you can never forget or never be shaken from who you truly are in Christ.
