People lose their God-given identity in many, many different ways. Here’s my story:
I’m sure my parents thought of me as a model child. I was super compliant, eager to please, on my best behavior at (almost) all times.
What they didn’t know, and couldn’t know, was this: I was slowly losing my own identity. Dwight Clough was being slowly erased and all that was left was compliance.
As I grew up, I tried to transfer this compliance to my relationship with God. “Whatever You want me to do, God, I’ll do it. Just name it. Just tell me what to do.”
Sounds good, huh? Well, it wasn’t really.
As I learned to listen to God’s Spirit, He asked me the same question over and over again. “What do you want, Dwight?”
At first, I tried to say, “It doesn’t matter. Whatever You want, that’s what I want.”
But God wasn’t buying it. He said to me, “I can do anything. But I’m not going to do anything until you tell Me what you want.”
To me, this is a precious gift. In this way (and in many other ways), God has been restoring my identity as His son. As a royal son of God, I have a right to ask my Father for things. He has a right to say no, but I have a right to ask.
People tell me I could be the model employee—eager to please, compliant, bright, super loyal. But instead, God has taken me into the world of self employment where compliance doesn’t count for much. So self-employment doesn’t come naturally to me; sometimes I struggle with it. But when I get discouraged, He helps get me back on my feet and says, “Stay in the game until you win.”
That’s what we do—you and I. We win. That’s who we are.
God restores our broken identities in many, many different ways. Your story may look very different than mine, but I can guarantee you that your identity is under assault and God is in the process of repairing it.
More next time…
Bible trivia:
Answer from last time: Jesus’ first recorded miracle was turning water into wine.
New question: How is the book of Isaiah like the whole Bible?
