Ever want to forget who you think you are?
Seems as though it is all part of what I would call "the human condition."
I use to envy people who seemed to know who they were. What I though "Knowing who you are" meant that you were doing what you were suppose to do. It all goes back to that dreaded false belief...."I am defined by what I have done and what others think about me. This kind of thinking sets us up for a lot of disappointment and heartache. Anytime I look for other human beings to validate me and define me, it's not going to end well.
If I let myself fall under that false belief of being dissatisfied with who I am, then I let my mind travel to places it really doesn't need to go. Such thoughts really keep me from hearing God and actually being the person that God desires me to be. No wonder Jesus told us we were to love God with all our heart, mind, body, spirit and soul. That is the starting place. Once that becomes our cornerstone in our relationship, we then love our neighbors, but that love for neighbor comes only in proportion in the love we have for ourselves. I don't believe Jesus is talking about a goofy, self-centered love, but rather an acceptance of we are in Christ.
Such an acceptance puts us at ease and peace with God and with our own view of self-importance. I no longer have to work at my identity. I no longer have to look to others to find acceptance. I only have to receive from God, who God says I am. Because of my salvation and acknowledgement that Jesus is Lord and Savior of my life, I am now defined by such terms as friend, son, child of God, servant.
From such a understanding, I can truly pray to God and ask that His Kingdom come....His Kingdom will be done....here on earth as it is in heaven (Matthew 6:10). Letting His kingdom rule and reign come through me as I move daily through this world, keeps me focused on Him. I don't spend my time wondering what my purpose is here on planet Earth.
I Corinthians 8:6 - But we know that there is only one God, the Father, who created everything, and we exist for him. And there is only one Lord, Jesus Christ ,through whom God made everything and through whom we have been given life.
Addiction has a way of stealing a persons identity. Oh, it not that you suddenly develop a kind of amnesia. It's that the addiction muddles and befuddles the mind to such a degree, that the over whelming emotions of guilt and shame totally drown any recognition of the image God created you with. It gets lost in every high...in every use...in every aspect of the addiction. We become more lost than an immigrant in a foreign country.
As the bad choices begin to pile up, we find that the courts begin to give us an identity. As the destruction grows, we find that law enforcement adds their names to who are. Near the end, family and friends abandon us because they don't recognize us either. We are no longer the sons, brothers, husbands and fathers we use to be. I'm not excluding women from this process. The one thing I have come to know to be the truth about addiction, it is an equal opportunity destroyer.
But God never wavers in his plans for us, no matter what addiction has brought about in our lives. Psalm 139:16 reads: "You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day passed.
Sounds as though God understands me better than anyone.
If that be the case...........
Then I think I'll listen to God to tell me who I am.
How about you?
God on you.....
mb
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