We are not
identified by our seasons of life. This
is something I feel like the Lord has been teaching me lately. Let’s face it, we have all gone through some
type of season. Hopeless and heartache,
pain and suffering, loss and set-backs, stress and frustrations. Yet we often carry these circumstances around
as if they belong to us.
I’ve gone
through my fair share of tough seasons.
I’ve walked through the seasons of hopelessness. I’ve walked through the seasons of
discouragement, despair, loneliness, hurt, rejection, and anger. Yet, I am not defined by them. I remember carrying these “feelings” around
like it belonged to me. Leaving my
house, I would make a mental note: got my phone- check, kids-check,
purse-check, emotional baggage-double check. I became aware of what I was doing when I
stumbled upon an old diary/journal I had kept during the time. My attitude
sucked. But was I mopey, and
whiney. I was drenched in
self-pity. I am not discrediting the
pain I was actually in or the hurt I was experiencing. No, because let’s face it. Those feelings are real. Why are so many on medication or committing
suicide? Because their feelings have
gotten the better of them. Depression is
real. So real that it’s not only natural
but supernatural!
But as I
re-read my journal I wasn’t so much taken by the actual experience I was having
but my attitude about it. It was like something
had caught my spirit’s attention. I
realized that if I was so struck by my attitude, how much more was God? Don’t get me wrong, I know he is all loving,
understanding and genuinely caring. But
I can tell you that it wasn’t my whining that moved him. Only faith can do that.
Hebrews says
faith is the substance of things hoped for, yet the evidence of things not
seen. Also, without faith it is
impossible to please God (Hebrews 11:6). My feelings regarding my situation
were way too big than my faith in who I was in Christ.
If we are
seated in heavenly places (Ephesians 2:6) then why are we so concerned about
earthly things? I believe it’s because
we get our eyes off of who we are and Whose we are and we put it on what we are
going through.
Shadows
always come with light. If you turn a
light on, you will most likely find a shadow somewhere. When we focus ourselves on the Light of the
World, our shadow stays behind us. When
we turn and look at our shadow (i.e. what we are going through. What we are feeling. What’s been done to us) then we miss the
light completely.
our identity
is in the light. Be in the light as he
is in the light (1 John 1:7). If our
identity is in Christ, he’s in light and is light, shouldn’t we be light as
well? Hint* the answer is YES. We are to be salt and light.
Before we
can be light, we need to throw off our rags of hurt, rejection, pain and
suffering, anger, frustration, loneliness, bitterness, depression, and everything
else that isn’t from Heaven. Then we
need to put on the cloak of righteousness.
We are the righteousness of God through Christ Jesus. If we don’t understand that, then his death
and resurrection was in vain. If we
don’t understand that our sins are forgiven and that the same power that raised
Christ from the dead lives in us, then the cross was for nothing.
If that
resurrection power raised Jesus from the dead, then it most certainly can raise
you out of your situation.
Do not
identity yourself with past seasons or current seasons of hurt or
disappointment. If we want to be
steadfast when storms of life come, then our roots of who we are need to be
deep in 1) the Father’s love and 2) the Word of God.
