This post is part of the Write 28 Days Blogging Challenge hosted by Anita Ojeda. Participants choose a category, in which to concentrate throughout the challenge and the host provides a daily writing prompt. You can find me in the Christian Living category of this year’s writing challenge link-up. Be sure to visit other posts while you’re there.
I hope you had time to read some of the verses from the previous post in this series. No worries, if you haven’t. This is not a race and my list is not all-inclusive. Don’t try to cram all of it into one or two days. Instead, let the verse rest within, taking your time with each one. Don’t worry too much about lining up perfectly with the scriptures we studied either, these are just a starting point.
Keywords and phrase from our starting point list of verses
You are loved (John 3:16).
You are chosen (John 15:16).
A coheir with Christ (Romans 8:17).
Purchased by the blood of Jesus (Ephesians 1:7)
Cleansed by the blood of Jesus (1 John 1:7).
Indwelt by the Holy Spirit (John 14:17).
A receiver of God’s grace (Ephesians 2:8-9).
You have peace and rest in Christ (John 14:27),
You have hope (Jerimiah 29:11, Romans 15:13),
Filled with the Holy Spirit (Romans 5:5),
A new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17).
You were loved first (1 John 4:19)
Now try your hand at writing out a sentence or two incorporating some of the words from our list. This should get your juices flowing as you work toward a final product. Be honest about who you think you are. This is not a list of your daily duties or the roles others might see you in. This is about how God sees you and who He says you are.
Get started with something like this (or exactly like this): I am a dearly loved child of God. God chose me for a purpose.
I’m making this sound easier than it was for me and I hope you, dear one, don’t struggle with it. My first identity statement was downright unkind, and ugly. When I read it back to myself I cried. How could this be? I knew that God did not think of me that way.
Believing that nonsense about myself meant that I didn’t believe God. Know this–God cannot lie (Titus 1:2, Hebrews 6:18). I realized, with the help of the Holy Spirit, that by believing bad things about myself I was really saying God was a liar. OK, now He had my attention.
Clearly, before I could finish my identity statement, I had some work to do. Maybe you do too. Prayer is a key part of this process. Allow the Holy Spirit to work it out and will He reveal the truth to you (John 16:13).
Suzette: Thank you for your transparency. It’s a challenge to the rest of us to be open and honest about ourselves with God.
He already knows everything about us, including our future. I don’t know why we make it harder than it has to be.