I was in church the other day… One of the young adults was leading the group up there, and he was breaking down 1 Corinthians 13. Well, the way he was going about it, I felt the need to elaborate. It is so funny to me because I’m the quiet sit in a corner and interact with no one kind of person and then I find something I want to interject and I surprise everyone…
Anyway, the subject of Identity came up. How are we to love? How are we to handle bad situations? How, how, how… They kind of beat around the bush, not giving specific answers and so I took over the class from there.
Identity… Finding our identity in Christ is how we love, how we love without condition, how we love in a bad situation, how we love when we love our husband, child, wife, friend or that crazy person that is driving you freakin crazy!
Why? Because… If we are in Christ as Christ is in the Father, and the Father is love. We are love. We are extensions of God made in God’s image. And if Yeshua is in us and we in Him we are filled with that same love. Except! Here’s the thing…
What causes us to not love? Think about it… What causes us to get angry, mad, upset, uncomfortable, doubt, what causes us to trip over ourselves when someone says something to us?
Generally, fear… If you wanted to say control I could see that, but even still a need to be in control usually is stimulated by fear. Even if it is the smallest amount of fear… You can argue that there are other reasons for anger, but I challenge you to really truly breakdown the reasoning for why you get worked up over situations.
If a child rebels, parent becomes angry… Why does the parent get angry? Because the child is suppose to listen. The parent is suppose to have “control” over the child, if they can’t “control” their child what else is that child going to do?
If someone says you’re stupid, you get angry, why? Because you feel threatened/offended. I’m going to go out on a limb here and say, if you get worked up over someone talking down to you or about you, I would go as far to say that you don’t have the confidence in yourself to turn away. Because if you were truly confident in yourself and your identity you should be able to turn away knowing that whatever is said will be found false because other people will see your actions, will hear your words and they will understand.
Now, don’t get me wrong, am I perfect with this? No… I blew up at my mom’s oldest boy because he decided that he wasn’t going to listen to me and that “I wasn’t the boss of him” and yeah, I’m still a bit hot on the situation…
And, am I able to walk away when someone insults me or offends me? If I do, it isn’t easily… Usually comes to a knock down drag out argument… But I know it’s because I’m not 100% confident in who I am. I feel the need to justify myself. In a perfect world, I would turn away knowing I am who I am and it doesn’t matter what people think of me. And there’s some people that I can shrug off and it doesn’t affect me, but if it’s someone that I care about, oh no… That’s a whole other story.
Anyway, fear… Let’s circle back here… Anger comes from fear, fear comes from feeling threatened in some way BUT… Our Identity is in Yeshua who cannot be threatened. We are spiritual beings having an earthly experience… Our identity cannot be harmed. Ted Dekker, got me on a mindset of each person has two of themselves. The flesh and who they are in Yeshua. The earthly vessel and the spiritual being. Therefore, yes, our bodies can feel threatened and they will kick and scream and cause a mess but WE are fine… WE cannot be threatened because WE are in Yeshua and He in us.
So if WE are not threatened, WE do not fear, therefore, WE can love without condition. WE can love unconditionally as is modeled in 1 Corinthians 13. I encourage you to find your identity in Yeshua who is in Yahweh and rest in the fact that Yeshua is in us and this is where our identities lie… Not in being a teacher, spouse, child, sibling, friend, police officer, our identity is not in the roles of this world… they are simply that. They are roles that we have. If we are submerged into water, we do not become the water, there comes a time which our bodies are done, and we must leave the water to find a better life. On the same note, we are submerged in this place called earth and there comes a point at which our bodies have to leave and so they may pursue eternal life…
Before I close out here, if anyone is interested, Ted Dekker is making a book public here soon called “The Forgotten Way Meditations” It’s a great book all around! If you want to know who you are, want to know where you stand with God whether you think you God loves your or not, I suggest you get this book because it will open up a whole new world for you.
Enjoy the Journey,
God Bless,
Jessica
imforhim 