1 Peter 2:9 (NIV)
“But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.”
Will we discover this incredible gift of God, or choose to walk in the identity the world handed down to us?
So many things hide this identity.
Shame.
(I’ve talked about this topic just a little bit this year). 🙂 Shame gives us an identity from our place of weakness. It condemns us and relegates us to a hopeless condition. Christ reaches our place of shame and covers it with His identity.
Grief.
Walled in by burdens that seem to be more than we can bear, we begin to label ourselves by our condition. We are “those” people. You know, the 1 percent of the population that is affected by whatever situation we encounter. But then when we set our expectations to what Christ said – we would have problems in this world – we recognize our grief arises from hope placed in promises that were never promised. When we suffer, our God cares. Immensely. And He wants to be our comfort. Our identity is not in our pain or sorrow. It is in the One Who bore every grief and sorrow we encounter.
Depression.
Hope. Another topic I adore. Every discouragement, disillusionment and depression (the ugly 3D) is met and dissolved by hope when it is in the right place. In Christ. Setting our hope on Him helps us to live uncaged from the battle of the mind, above emotions, in complete freedom.
This Christmas, may God give us a fresh revelation of what His identity means and this incredible gift from our great, loving God. Remembering that we were chosen in Christ reminds us that we are chosen to live on purpose of a mission God has uniquely given each one of us to express to the world as only we can do it.
Merry Christmas, friends. You belong to Christ! You belong! Refute every condemnation, every lie, every label that tries to minimize what you are – a child of God!
Shame robs us of all sorts of things. Joy, hope, dignity. Why live with shame when you don’t have to? God has provided a way for us to remove shame and live in victory. Come and release your shame in Jesus’ name. Shame Off You details a biblical method for removing shame and is available at many retailers. Here are a few places you can get Shame Off You. Let me know you bought Shame Off You and receive a free bonus digital download.