The First Step in Knowing Who You Are
We all feel pressure to a different degree and in different parts of our lives. When that happens, our identities become tied to our achievements. Some of you listen to the podcast or read this blog because you’re putting pressure on yourself to be “godlier”. But that's not the way the God of the Bible works. God is after a relationship with you.
God’s love in scripture
“The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not fear. He leads me beside still waters; He restores my soul.” — Psalm 23
The God of the Bible is not a God that screams pressure. In fact, He is a respite from the pressure. We have somehow picked up a voice in our head that we think is God's. This voice tells us a million things we should do, or it tells us to be perfect. The real voice of God says, “I want to take care of you. I want to lead you beside still waters. I actually want to restore your soul, not wear it out.”
When we approach something as big as our identity, we can immediately start to think of things we need to achieve, so that we “measure up”. But God tells us to begin with compassion. So, begin with the grace for you to be imperfect, for your identity to have some holes, and for your personhood to have some places that are broken.
Honestly, how are you?
Let's start with what’s true. I want you to think of yourself as a big puzzle with lots of different pieces. Think about all of the different parts of you – your body, emotions, mental health, work, and friendships.
Then, take a good look at each piece, and write out how that part of your life is going right now. Notice the parts where you’re lacking. This may be all of them, and that's okay.
Even if you feel like a part of your life is almost nonexistent, have a lot of compassion for yourself.
Seeking God’s guidance
I want you to truly allow God to shepherd you. I usually do that by asking God for guidance using two questions:
· What do you want me to know?
· What do you want me to do?
This is how God gently leads us. He shepherds us. He knows us, and we follow Him. Scripture says we’ll never perish because He gave us eternal life. “Neither shall any man pluck them out of My hand,” God tells us (John 10:28).
That is not a God who is waiting for you to measure up. That's a God who wants to walk with you. He wants to know you. He wants to help all the parts of you. He wants to hold and love those parts of you, and He wants to help walk through whatever it’ll take to heal those parts.
Embrace a childlike relationship with God
I wanted to cry when one of my kids was scared to face us because they feared being in trouble. I understood why they thought that, but as parents, we wanted to build a safe place for our kids to talk about the challenges they faced. We want to help our kids grow, flourish, and thrive because we love them.
I think we can be a lot like my child in our relationship with God. We wonder if we’re in trouble, and we get scared to look at certain parts of ourselves out of fear that we’ll have to be honest with ourselves, with God, and with other people about being a mess.
You’re probably a mess right now. The last few years have been a wild ride for all of us. Of course you're not thriving. Congratulations if you are, but some parts of you may not be thriving. To some degree, we've been scared to look at those parts of us because we don't know what to do with them.
My kid felt so helpless and didn’t think there were answers. But as parents, we had the answers. We actually know what this child needs, and we know what's best for them.
We all need to get to a place where we're interacting with God out of childlike faith. We need to reach a place where our hearts are tender, and where God gets to love and care for us. In so doing, we’re allowing God to see all parts of us. That's how we heal. Not by shaming ourselves, but by a greater vision.
We heal best in relationship with God, and alongside other people that can look at our broken parts and understand us.
Rather than shame you, those dearest to you want to know why you’re feeling a certain way. And God already knows the answer. He knows why it's hard for you to get out of bed in the morning. So, these are two questions we’ll delve into during this season of Made for This, and I hope you’ll ask these questions throughout the rest of your life.
Just ask God, “what do you want me to know? What do you want me to do?”
God will show you the way, and He's been faithful to do so.
Next time, we'll be talking about hearing the voice of God because I believe our identity has to begin there. It has to begin with the childlike relationship to which God is calling us.
