Identity Series part 3

 It has been way too long since I have done a blog post. I sincerely apologize and will make a couple posts about what all has happened in between times soon. However, I left off in the middle of a series that I need to finish!

Fighting the battle from victory. 

This concept applies to so much more than just identity. Praise God it applies to all of Christian life. 

1 Corinthians 15:57

"But thanks be to God, who gives us victory through our Lord Jesus Christ."

As Christians, every single area of our lives has been changed and transformed by the power and love of God. We can, perhaps emphasis on 'can', live differently because of the truth that we build our lives on. 

Matthew 6:31-32

"So don't worry about these things, saying, 'What will we eat? What will we drink? What will we wear?' These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers, but your heavenly Father already knows all your needs."  

Unbelievers do not live in this assurance. They cannot face the world and all its many trials with the same confidence that we can. Our lives have been radically and dramatically changed by the fact that God sent His Son as a sacrifice in our place. He was sent to save us from our sins, which He defeated, and by believing in Him we are saved forever. He defeated darkness, death, and sin by rising from the grave. He said, "It is finished." The battle is won. Therefore, as we walk through this life, in all the battles we face we know that God holds the victory. 

How does this relate to identity specifically? How do we fight those battles from victory?

Struggles with remembering who we are in Christ and who God is calling us to be fall under the "every single battle we face" category, therefore God holds the victory over these battles too. 

It can be so easy to be overwhelmed and lose sight of God when we focus on the battle. Much like the story of when Jesus calmed the waves. First Peter walked out on the water to meet up with Jesus, then he took his eyes off of Jesus and on to the mounting waves. He forgot whose power permitted him to walk on top of this churning water. 

We quickly forget who created us. Who took the time to form every tiny detail that makes up our beings. We forget that He calls us perfect, we do not always listen when He says to us, "I did not make a mistake when I formed you in your mother's womb. I did not make mistakes when I made you." 

Psalm 39:14

"I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well."

Perspective is incredibly important in the mental and spiritual battles we face. As Christians we are living proof that God has defeated darkness through the blood, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Every day we can choose to walk in that confidence and victory. Every day however there is a battle, the objective of the evil that fights against us is to get us to look at the waves, to get stuck in a downward spiral, to believe that we are worthless, to think that we are unlovable by getting us to lose sight of the One who loves us more than we can comprehend. If we believe the lies we are fed, then we give ourselves over to being consumed by them. We don't fight what we think is true about ourselves. We look inward and find nothing, instead of looking upward into the open arms that hold everything, every part of us. 

Knowing these battles exist is important. Then we have to fight, it is also important to note that there are times when we just can't fight. These are the times when we have to surrender it to God and collapse in His arms, knowing that He will fight for us. I believe, though, that there are times though when God calls us to fight with Him, not fighting all on our own but side by side with our Protector. We need to root ourselves in Truth so that when we hear the lies in our minds we can fight back. We are not worthless. We are Children of the Most High God, dearly Loved and cherished by Him. When we believe that and walk in that Truth it changes so much in our minds.     

In every single battle that we face we can rest assured that sin, death, and darkness have been overcome by the power of the blood given for us on the cross. 

1 John 5:4

"For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world - our faith." 

I pray that God will guide us all to lift our eyes up to His, that we would be rooted in Truth, and that we would fight our battles from the victory won for us by the blood of Christ.