Yesterday morning, I went to church at The Salvation Army Crossgenerations, and it was wonderful. I felt the presence of God so strongly and the Holy Spirit was working in awesome ways. I may have touched on this in previous posted, but God has been revealing things in my life that I need to let him work on. It has been a painful process and I don't think I'm close to being done, but I received prayer yesterday morning. Then in the afternoon, Ryan and I headed to Greenhouse, which continues to be such a blessing in my life. It's crazy to think that I started going as a support for a friend, but I now feel at home with these people. The sermon series is wonderful. It's called "Be Yourself, Follow Jesus," which I think is brilliant. Yesterday's sermon looked at the question: "How do you discover who you are?" This fit right into what I received prayer for that morning.
Identity is what I've been struggling with. I find myself finding my value in other people and things, and not in God. I ask myself questions like, "What the heck am I doing with my life? Am I making a difference? Am I good enough? How do people see me? How does God see me? What is my identity?" I believe that we have all struggled with identity at some point or another, and it's a painful process yet in the end has a beautiful outcome. I'm just waiting for that outcome.
This week I am spending at least an hour of prayer in either the prayer chapel at our church or at home. I am also going to work through a paper that was given to us during the Greenhouse service yesterday. It looks like this:
Now, I recreated this, so mine looks a lot less neat than the one I received at church but it's good enough. I know that I will not explain this as well as Dave did, but I'll try. If you look at the circles, the first one is "where" and in this circle, you'd right different situations in your life. I understood as writing things about where you've come from. Maybe where you went to school, where you grew up, just different happenings in your life that come to mind. Then the next circle is "how," and this is how you react to different things because of the "where." Does this make sense? Dave, if you're reading, feel free to comment on this and put in a better explanation : ) What are your reactions like? Good or bad? Can they be changed or not? All of that would go into the "how." Then the very middle circle is "who," and at the middle of this circle is Jesus. He's in the middle of our identity. Our identity comes from Jesus. This is the spot deep down inside ourselves that shows who we truly were created to be. That middle circle is what I want to figure out. This week, I'm going to look at what's happened in my life, my reactions and why I react that way in order move closer to my true identity. I am going to expect that God is going to continue to speak into my life truth about who I am and how He sees me. We are bombarded by the world's view on this everyday. Everyday, we hear lies about who we are and who we aren't. I don't want to care about that any more. I long for God to show me who I am.
Now, this probably is not going to happen in a week, but this week I am starting the process. This week is about me. It can be about you too! Join me and let's dialogue about what God is saying. There may be some of you who don't identify yourself as a "Christian." That's ok. But maybe you have questions about your identity. Maybe you've tried to figure it out on your own or by asking other people or trying different things and it hasn't worked. So why not just try asking God? You might be surprised at what you find out. Feel free to add comments about what you feel God is saying. Let's use this week to grow together as God reveals to us who we were created to be.
Looking forward to it, Amanda. And you did a nice job :-)
ReplyDeleteA couple thoughts. First, the diagram and these thoughts are from the book Inner Compass by Margaret Silf.
Let me do each circle in one breath, just for clarity's sake.
(I like to say that the things on the surface of the circle, which are important, are the ways we express ourselves or the things we like - what we listen to, what tattoo we display, etc)
Where - all of the things that are given in our life. Our job, family, past, lessons we've learned about ourselves, memories, etc.
How - All of the ways we go about doing life. Responses, motivations, patterns.
Who - The intangible, delicate place that houses what makes you uniquely and wonderfully made. This will be different for everyone, but for me that's included the things I care about (creativity, imagination, etc), the ways I recharge (nature, music, etc), and the things I need and love to give (love). It's the stuff that makes you *you*, including your identity as God's creation.
Hope that's helpful.
Very helpful! Thanks, Dave~I knew you'd read it! Thanks for following my blog. It means a lot to me!
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