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Living Out Your Belovedness
As a river flows out from its source and brings refreshment wherever it goes, our lives were made to flow out from God and carry the fullness of His life to everyone around us—a refreshment that we can only offer from our place as God’s Beloved. In fact, in His kindness, God often reminds us of who we are as His Beloved before He commands us to do anything for others.
A striking example of this is Colossians 3:12: “Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness and patience… (ESV, emphasis added). If you’ll notice, God doesn’t say, “Because of what you’ve accomplished in the past and the great abilities you possess, you can do what I’m asking you to do.” No, God reminds us that we have what it takes to do what He’s asking us to do because of who He’s made us to be! Here He reminds us that we are His chosen ones: holy and beloved.
These words are not an empty salutation. They are God reminding us once again of who we really are. And even more importantly, Whose we really are! It’s from this place of security and love that we can serve others.
When we forget the correct order—that our identity in God is more important than anything we do for God—we push and trudge toward God and others from a place of barrenness. Then when we attempt to commune with God, our barren hearts cower, certain that He’s disappointed in us and doesn’t want to be near us. We still believe in Him, and we want others to be close to Him, but we’re too weary and feel too unworthy to live from a place of rest.
But when we get in the habit of renewing our minds about Whose we are, something changes in us! Those led by the Spirit “set their minds on the things of the Spirit.” A mind set on the Spirit “is life and peace” (Romans 8:5–6). Out from that life and peace comes a rest that propels us to love God with all our hearts, minds, souls, and strength—and to love others as ourselves, with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience that can only come from the one who calls us Beloved.
Why does feeling secure in our identity as God’s Beloved change how we relate to others?
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About this Plan
We each have so many opportunities to do things for God that sometimes we forget that our first calling is simply to delight in our identity as His Beloved. In this five-day reading plan, singer, song-writer, and author Christy Nockels invites us to set aside our hustle for God and instead rest in who He created us to be. And from that beautiful place we find our true identity.
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