Indisputable IdentitySample

Day 3: A Secret Layer to the Issue of Identity

“An answer to prayer?”

Could all this misplaced identity, hurt, and pain I experienced be an unconventional way God answered my specific prayer for a husband?

Before my breakup with the bully, I would have said I knew exactly who I was in Christ and that my understanding was unshakable. As it turned out, the shattering of my identity (then ten years in the making) took only 15 seconds to reduce to smithereens.

After those three years in darkness, I finally realized God had done me a big favor. In response to my prayer for a husband, God helped me see that a spouse was not the one missing element in my life as I previously thought. Learning to live victoriously amid adverse, everyday circumstances was a much bigger issue that would serve me well in whatever station of life I would find myself. After being referred to as outside the realm of “pretty,” internalizing the truth of being “fearfully and wonderfully made,” (Psalm 139:14 NIV) changed what I saw when I looked in the mirror and, likewise, changed what I thought of myself. God wanted me to experience wholeness just as I was because, in Christ, I already had everything I needed. Psalm 23:1 says, “The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing.” (NIV)

One example of this can be seen in the story of the indebted widow in 2 Kings, chapter 4. When her husband dies, and his creditor plans to take her two sons as slaves to work off their father’s debt, the widow asks Elisha, the man of God, for help. Rather than immediately relieving her debt, Elisha instructs the widow to address her situation by starting with what she already has—a small flask of olive oil. He tells her to borrow several jars from her neighbors and to fill them all with olive oil from the one tiny bottle she already has. After the widow does what Elisha says, he tells her to sell the oil to obtain the money she needs. Just as it was difficult for me to believe I was fearfully and wonderfully made, it must have been difficult for the widow to believe her tiny bottle of oil could yield enough to fill several jars and yield enough money to pay off debts and live on. Nonetheless, she learns to trust God’s direction from the mouth of His prophet; she does what he says, and the widow is prepared for a new way of life.

• What prayer have you secretly withheld because you wonder if attaining what you want will cost you tremendously?
• What two things about your identity in Christ excite you the most?
• Go to SherryBoykin.com for options on how you can secure/internalize your God-given identity.