the voice that defines you.
I sat here staring at my computer for the longest time meditating on what God wanted me to write about. It has been about two weeks since I wrote my last blog and honestly, I feel terrible about that. I had set goals to write once a week and when that goal wasn’t being met, self-doubt started to creep in.
I suddenly started hearing, “you’re not good enough”, “no one reads your material”, “no one cares about what you have to say”. That’s when I knew I needed to write about the voices that define us. I believe we allow so many voices to have an opinion on who we are as we grow up, they eventually drown out the voices that truly matter.
Over the course of our lives, each person’s identity is formed and shaped through individual experiences, relationships, culture, media and the world around us. We are constantly defining who we are in any way we can.
Often, we feel pressured to define ourselves through our jobs, financial status, successes, grades, appearance, what other people say about us and many other means. But what happens to our identity when we experience failure? Or lose someone’s favor? Or become burned out in our jobs or place of service? The very foundation of our identity is shaken and altered, resulting in us hustling to define ourselves by something or someone else. A stable sense of self cannot fully exist when we place our identity in external things. When circumstances change, our identity constantly changes too.
We may receive an overwhelming amount of voices telling us to define ourselves by external measures, but what would it look like to base our identity on what God says about us?
If we journey back to the Garden of Eden, we can see that mankind is special. Genesis 1 tells us we are the only creature made “in God’s image.” It might be hard to fathom, but we are God’s masterpiece. We’re the only thing God created with His hands. We’re the only thing in this world with inherent value. We’re the only creation Jesus was willing to die for. We’re the only creation in this world with whom God wants a relationship. We’re special! Being made in God’s image can’t be taken away because someone deems you unworthy.
In Genesis 3, we see that the serpent manipulates Eve in to thinking that God is hiding something from them.
Genesis 3:1 NIV says,
1 He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”
From the very beginning the Enemy has been attacking our identities, causing us to doubt what God says.
Genesis 3: 2-5 NIV,
2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’”
4 “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5 “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
And, well, we know the rest of the story. Sin enters humanity because of the doubt of our identity in God. The Enemy came in questioning the goodness of God. God had called us good and Adam and Eve started doubting it.
David Benner, a psychologist and author of the book, “The Gift of Being Yourself”, suggests, “an identity grounded in God would mean that when we think of who we are, the first thing that would come to mind is our status as someone who is deeply loved by God.”
Someone who is deeply loved by God. That is what an identity grounded to God looks like. No doubt. No second-guessing. No self-criticism. Just accepting the Love of the Father.
If we move on in Genesis 3, we see that Adam and Eve suddenly realize that they are naked and they run and hide from God because they hear him walking in the Garden.
Genesis 3:9-11 NIV says,
9 But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”
10 He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.”
11 And he said, “Who told you that you were naked?”
Every time I read that part of scripture, I can almost hear God say, “Who lied to you? Who said you were less-than? Who told you, you were ugly? Who said that you weren’t enough?“ What voices are you listening to?
The voice that you listen to, is ultimately the voice that defines you.
When sin entered the world, shame and fear entered as well. Shame says, “I am not.” Fear says, “I can’t.” This happens when we allow another voice to enter into our lives.
If David allowed the voices in his life to define him, he would’ve never become king of Israel. He was the by-passed son of a shepherd. His own father didn’t even remember him, BUT God called him to be king. If Gideon listened to the voices in his life and of his small clan, he would’ve never defeated the Midianites with his 300 man army. If Paul allowed the voices in his life to define him, he would’ve never been the amazing God-fearing man that he was. There are 13 Epistles in the New Testament that he wrote and changed the course of Christianity as we know it. They all believed who God said they were. Nothing else!
One of the richest passages about identity in the Bible is found in Ephesians 1:3-14. In this passage, Paul addresses the church in Ephesus, explaining the new identity given to a person when they are in Christ.
According to Ephesians 1, we have been blessed with every spiritual blessing; we have been chosen, adopted, redeemed, forgiven, grace-lavished and unconditionally loved and accepted. We are pure, blameless and forgiven. We have received the hope of spending eternity with God. When we are in Christ, these aspects of our identity can never be altered by what we do or the voices we may hear.
SO what does Christ says about us? :
You are loved.
God loves you. Despite our being unworthy of His love and our falling short, and besides what we should have coming our way, He loves you. He loves you because of His love for you, and not because of anything you can do, show, give, or become. I know that can be disturbingly difficult to fully grasp. But God’s incomparable, priceless love for you is absolutely true. “Christ died for us while we were still sinners. This demonstrates God’s love for us” (Romans 5:8).
2. You are valuable.
Sometimes people say they would lay down their life for a loved one. Some people have done just that, dying as heroes. But God has gone even further. He willingly died for us while we were against Him. And it was an inconceivable price He paid for you: “for God bought you with a high price” (I Corinthians 6:20).
3. You are accepted.
Accepted by God means declared innocent. Another way to say that is justified. In fact, in the original translation of the verse I’m about to share with you, the word justified was dikaioō (dik-ah-yo’-o). The definition for that Greek word is “to render righteous.”
“yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified” (Galatians 2:16).
4. You are precious.
Because God is so intimately familiar with who you are, and because you are His own design, you are precious to Him. How amazing is that? The God who created everything that you can see and everything you can’t see is personally concerned with you. (See Psalms 139:13-19)
If we live out of an identity based on how God defines us, we no longer feel the need to find our worth in our external circumstances. It frees us up to live confidently and stably instead of changing who we are based on the opinions of others, our professional success, how we see ourselves, and all the other ways we define our significance. It gives us the opportunity to experience God’s unconditional love in new and fresh ways, and it allows us to confidently and boldly share His love with others.
It is certainly a battle as we live in a world that seeks to define us by its own standards, but the battle is worth it because as we fight it, the world around us changes.
What voices have you allowed in? Have you bowed down to what society or your family or past experiences have declared over you? If so, today is the day to change that. You were created by the most beautiful King with the highest honor. And He has called you GOOD! Don’t listen to the lies of the Enemy.
Who told you were naked? Who told you weren’t enough?
You are loved, valuable, accepted and precious. Stand firm on these truths!
“True freedom and joy come not from trying to become someone else, but by embracing who God created us to be.” - Holley Gerth.