Wow that's alot of gray hair... gotta pluck those eyebrows... where are these wrinkles coming from... do I look fat??
Move beyond the exterior...
I'm a wife, a mom, a daughter, a sister, a friend - we tend to identify ourselves by our relationships with our family and others; and that's usually a part of what we talk about with other women, but go beyond your usual titles...
Who do you truly see?
Go deeper, beyond the image staring back at you in the mirror...Who is that woman staring back at you?
What is your identity...your identity in Christ?
1 Peter 2:9 says, "But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of Him who called you out of darkness in to his wonderful light".
Often times we forget who we are and we fall into comparing ourselves to others and allow feelings of insecurity to rob us of our identity in Christ. It is important that we see ourselves the way God sees us and then live in obedience to Him. God knows who we really are. He loves us and created us for a purpose.
Our single most valuable – yet least understood treasure is our identity in Christ. We accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we receive His spirit who resides in us. We begin to take on the characteristics of our Father. We are shaped into His image day by day. But nothing we can ever do makes us any more or less of a daughter of the King of kings. He loves us. He loves that woman you see staring back in the mirror... He loves her beyond words. There is nothing you have to do, no list to check off for Him to love you anymore... Do you believe that?
As a woman in Christ, our desire should be that when other people look at us they see Jesus - our identity in Christ means that we are being formed more and more into the image of the Lord (Galatians 4:19).
Once we discover our identity, it’s simply a matter of walking in it. And yes, this walk can be hard - but my sister that is where Titus 2:3-5 speaks to us... older women are to teach the younger women...to love, to be self controlled, pure, take care of our home, to be kind, to be submissive... You don't have to take this journey alone. Do you have a woman in your life that speaks Truth to your life, that prays with you and for you, that steers you to His word? If not, I want to encourage you to pray for God to send a woman like that to your life, a woman who can be your accountability partner. That when our identity becomes clouded, she can remind us what Scripture tells us.
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5:17-21 - NIV)
Because your identity is "in Christ"
You are righteous, alive, forgiven, justified, redeemed
You have been sanctified, justified, made holy and perfect
You have been reconciled to and accepted by God
You are without blemish, free from accusation, and complete
You are alive, forgiven, justified, redeemed, free from condemnation
You have wisdom and understanding
You have joined Him in His death, burial, and resurrection
Your old identity is gone and your new identity is eternal
You have been given the righteousness of God
You are His friend, His child, and His heir
