A couple of times in this message I mention something called the Identity in Jesus sheet it has been scanned and will also be posted on my blog page for you to read as I mention it in the message. It was a page given to me by some of the administrators at my high school when I was in the 11th grade. I am now about to enter the 15th grade (junior year of college) and I still have this sheet. I keep it with me and I look at the things on the sheet that Christ sees me as. I printed it out in Spanish and gave it to some of the people in Guatemala. I can’t very well do that for you, but feel free to print it out for yourself and put it somewhere where you can see it and it will remind you what your true Identity is.
I’m here to give you a little more insight on who you are to God (hopefully I do that). More than the fact that you are a human and not a cat or a dog and that you’re a boy or a girl and not a plant there are characteristics of who you are.
Think about a few names people would use to describe you or you would use to describe yourself good and bad.
Personally, I’ve been called: short, tiny, surprisingly loud for my size, annoying, small, and I think I’m noticing a theme here.
What other people say doesn’t define you (though they have been right about me being small). God has more important things to say about who you are.
- In Jeremiah 31: 3 He calls you loved (read from Identity in Jesus sheet)
This is no simple thing to wrap your head around. I struggled to believe this until almost exactly a year ago. When I came to Guatemala and you guys (they) showed me love. There had been a lot happening in my life throughout the past year. It was my first year at college. I had made a lot of friends and started a lot of relationships, both healthy and unhealthy. There were people throughout that year and my life who had taken advantage of me and not been appreciative of all that I had to offer. I kept seeing this as a pattern from a good amount of people who were not “required” to love me (my family), and the sad part was I felt a very conditional love from some of my extended family. This, plus listening to the world at times had built up in me this inability to see and feel how loved I was all the time. I would see it at certain moments or I would feel it sometimes, but I could not feel God’s love every day all the time. Last summer when I came to Guatemala I did not really know what to expect. Everyone in Guatemala opened their hearts and arms and homes to me and I could see just by looking at them that they genuinely and truly loved me. That they truly wanted me and truly appreciated me. No matter what I had done, what I told them, or how I messed up, it did not matter to them, they loved me. Period. It was an unbelievable thing to see and to be able to receive. They truly showed me Christ’s unconditional love. Thanks to them I began my journey on truly feeling loved. I now see and receive it much more freely and let me tell you it is s o l i b e r a t i n g. Having the security of knowing at least one perfect person (God) will love me no matter what and will never leave me. It makes ALL the difference. It makes how anyone else treats me or mistreats me so small. We have the undivided love of the maker of the Universe, y’all. That calls for a happy dance.
In Ephesians 2:10 God calls you His Masterpiece. (read from Identity in Jesus sheet)
- When an artist paints and creates things he doesn’t call every piece of artwork his masterpiece. He throws some away, or he has them displayed but they aren’t all his masterpiece. Only a select few are called that, the ones that are the most beautiful, most wonderful, and the most valuable to the artist. God does not call everything He created a masterpiece. He calls everything good, but he calls only humans his masterpiece.
- He is so incredibly proud of how wonderful you are and how intricately He wove you together, which He tells us in Psalm 139:13, that He delights in you (Zephaniah 3:17) and He calls you his masterpiece. His prized work of art.
To Him it does not matter what you’ve done you are made pure (Isaiah 1:18 on the Identity in Jesus sheet) and made new (2 Corinthians 5:17 on the Identity in Jesus sheet) because of this all of the bad and gross things you’ve done in the past that you may think prevents you from Him does not and He still sees you as His work of art, His masterpiece.
- Since you are so wonderful to Him he desires and longs for a relationship with you. One of the best ways to make and keep up a relationship with Him is through prayer. Prayer is like just talking to God. You do not have to pray to Him only about prayer requests. He wants to know how you're feeling, He wants to be able to hear your thoughts, and your desires, and your "small" concerns throughout the day. God loves you s o m u c h that everything you do is so important to Him. None of the things you go through are "small" He wants, no longs, to hear about it ALL.
- He wants to be your protector and provider
- This is why we He tells us to call Him Heavenly Father, because fathers are designed to be the protector and the provider of the household. Reality is sometimes it is hard to comprehend a perfect Father because earthly fathers fall short and sin. Even the most perfect earthly father could never compare to the perfect Heavenly father.
- If you cannot get past bad connotations attached to father because of your earthly father it is okay. You only need to know that He is your protector and provider if you’ll let Him be.
Overall, God just thinks that you are so cool and so incredible that He wants to be your best friend, have a really strong relationship with you, and talk to you all the time, through prayer. I mean come on, wouldn’t you want to be best friends with everyone who is like the things I’ve talked about? I know I do. So, I’d love to get to know and talk to you my inbox is open. Thank you for listening to a little bit of my story and a little bit of God’s story for you.
You have my heart,
r
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