For in Him we live, and move, and have our being. Acts 17:28
Where are you gathering your identity?
Are you shopping at Walmart when you should be selecting items at the most expensive store?
You might reply you cannot possibly afford the most expensive store.
Remember, I’m not talking about material goods.
I’m talking about your worth. Your identity. Your very core.
When you surrender your life to God, He steps in, scooping out the ugly, replacing it with beauty.
Jesus’ death on the cross provides the transaction removing sin. The sin we were born with. The sin we chose. Our heredity. God’s power removes all of it, replacing it with redemption.
When redeemed, we have God’s power. His life. His disposition.
Acts reminds us we live and move and literally are within God.
Your identity is God’s.
Your worth is God’s.
When we live from within God’s power, we have everything.
When our being is literally from God, our worth is immeasurable.
It’s time to stop shopping for your worth at the thrift store.
Time to stop settling for your used former self.
Instead, select God’s equisite self. His perfection wanting to shine through you.
Start living as if God is speaking through you.
Start living as if God is working through you.
Start living as if God is moving through you.
Because when you live and move and have your being in God, He’s already here.
Mary therefore took a pound of expensive ointment made from pure nard, and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. John 12:3
I wonder how long the expensive fragrance lingered on His feet.
If the smell remained days later.
Guessing for a few it did.
After bathing? Probably.
Nard was expensive due to its high quality.
It was usually reserved for royalty, sealed in an equally expensive alabaster jar to preserve the special fragrance.
It was the best money could buy.
Mary poured it out on Jesus because of Who He was.
The Son of God.
Our Messiah.
The King of Kings.
How about 6 days later.
Do you think the fragrance lingered still?
That’s when Jesus was arrested.
Through the trial?
Through the flogging?
Through the agony on the cross?
What if God’s timing allowed the fragrance to whiff here and there while Jesus suffered?
Reminding Him of His purpose and identity.
Whiffs of sacrifice and worship while enduring.
How about you?
Do you recognize when God does that for you?
Notice.
Notice the goodness of God amidst the suffering.
Notice the love of God while enduring.
Notice the fragrance of God, who goes before you, stands behind you, and is always right by your side.
Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practicers and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its Creator. Colossians 3:9-10
Have you put on your new self?
The one God created you to live within?
Entering into our relationship with God, He forgives our sin away.
Our old selves.
But it tends to sneak back.
Our old habits, thoughts, actions, desires, and selves.
Yes, we are still the Lords, but we begin acting as if we are not.
We forget who we have become.
We forget Whose we now are.
Colossians 3 reminds we have put down our old self and its practices.
Our old habits. Our selfishness. Our life apart from God.
Instead, we have put on our new selves.
Our new identity as God’s.
And our new identity is continually renewed within the knowledge that we are created in God’s very image.
But as Colossians reminds us, it’s a choice.
When life happens, what self will you put on?
Will you react within your old habits of fear and inadequacy?
Or will you react within your new self, wrapped in God’s image of peace, love, and joy?
Notice which you choose.
And purpose to dress within your new self: the very image of God.
Photos by https://unsplash.com/@brodatafotografia, https://unsplash.com/@beccamchaffie, https://unsplash.com/@belart84
My Jewish faith has always been central in my family.
I keep the laws, heading to the tabernacle when my sacrifice is due.
We’ve waited for the Messiah my whole life.
Actually for generations now.
Sometimes my condition takes over and I can think of nothing else.
Honestly, I feel so useless.
Always feeling tired, needing to run to the toilet.
My condition also makes me unclean.
So I feel ashamed. Constantly.
I know God can heal me. He just hasn’t yet.
Maybe He won’t. Maybe this will be the way I always live.
I need to accept that if indeed my life will remain the same.
God can still use me.
But I’m so tired. Tend to feel sorry for myself if I’m completely honest.
Where am I standing? I’m in the city streets.
Today is going to be different.
I’ve heard Jesus will be walking through town today.
Heard simply amazing things about Him.
Miracles. Healing. Acceptance.
I need to see Him. He can help me if I can get near enough to Him.
I can feel it in my heart.
I’ve been waiting in this heat for awhile now. I’m so tired.
But I must remain standing. For Him.
Oh, I see a large crowd coming. They are so joyful and loud!
I see Him. Jesus is here! I can recognize Him from His eyes.
He is looking so loving at all of us, the crowd pressing against Him.
Ok, here’s my chance. I’m going to reach out and touch just the edge of His garment. That’s all I need to do.
Wow. I did it! Thank you, God!
Do I feel any different? Possibly? Could it be?
Wait. Jesus has stopped walking.
He has turned around, eyes searching the crowd.
Now He’s speaking, wondering who touched Him.
His disciples are confused as there are many surrounding Him.
But Jesus keeps looking for me. I just know it.
His eyes find me and I step forward trembling. I confess what I did, falling at His feet.
Jesus reaches down and helps me to my feet.
He called me Daughter! And said my faith had made me whole!
My suffering is now finished and I am to go forth in peace.
My body instantly feels completely different. I really am whole!
I am crying like a baby. I am full of overflowing joy and love from this man who noticed me.
This famous man, Jesus, sought me out and noticed me.
Yes, my body is healed, but He also healed my heart.
My identity has changed from unclean to daughter of the Messiah.
I must tell everyone He has come! Our wait is over! Hallelujah!
What do you need from God today?
Do you have faith He will help you, too?
As a Christian, our identity is fixed into God’s family as daughters and sons of the Most High.
Your Father in heaven will fill you with love and peace to overflowing each and every day.
Go to Him like this woman, believing He will help you.
And He will.
Because He loves and notices you.
Just then a woman who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak.She said to herself, “If I only touch his cloak, I will be healed.” Jesus turned and saw her. “Take heart, daughter,” he said, “your faith has healed you.” And the woman was healed at that moment. Matthew 9:20-22
There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. Romans 8:1
There is absolutely zero condemnation when you are His.
God’s.
When you have given your life to God, the world’s condemnation no longer sticks.
It’s no longer your identity.
You are covered, instead, by God Himself.
Chosen.
Loved.
Valuable.
Are you still living under your old identity?
Your old condemned self?
Why?
Whatever for?
Because it’s what you know.
Your old ways are safe.
Known.
When you face trials, you revert to old labels.
Because they are like old familiar blankets.
Wrapping up in self-pity feels normal.
Clothing yourself in anger feels justified.
When you choose to become God’s, you are changed.
Your identity becomes new.
Condemnation falls away.
Fear goes.
Anxiety flees.
But only if you choose to stay under the new identity from God.
The choice is yours.
Romans 8 reminds us God declares we have no condemnation when we are His.
But He gives us free will.
You can choose at anytime, to walk from under His wings.
Out from His identity for you.
Your old identity is out there.
Easily attainable and readily available.
But with it comes the usual fear, anxiety, and angst.
Because it also includes the absence of God’s peace.
Reaching for your old identity results from walking in the flesh.
In your own sinful self.
Romans 8 urges us to walk in the Spirit, not in the flesh.
Because when we walk with God according to His will, we are within His peace.
Not condemned.
Choose every day to walk with God.
Choose every day to refuse the pull of the flesh.
When you do, condemnation will fall away as God Himself remains.
For the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord bestows favor and honor. No good thing does He withhold from those who walk uprightly. Psalm 84:11
The angel Gabriel had just disappeared, leaving her with God’s request.
Mary was left standing in the middle of the room, trembling after her encounter with God’s holy angel.
Steadying herself by grabbing a chair, she collapsed into it, wondering if she had imagined it all.
Gabriel had appeared to her, proclaiming God’s need for her to be the Lord’s earthly mother.
“How could I say no?” Mary thought. “I want to do whatever God wants me to do, but I’m scared. Really terrified, actually. What will people say? Will they believe me?”
Mary said yes to God.
She had no idea the ramifications of her acceptance into God’s will.
Her life was over as she knew it, but obeying God was more important to her than anything else.
Did she have periods of doubt?
Of course.
Did she have moments or even days of regret?
Probably.
She’s human.
Imagine yourself.
Imagine the whispers of your friends, the people you’ve grown up with your whole life.
“Did you know Mary’s pregnant? She’s not even married!”
Overhearing these comments would not sit well in her heart.
She probably cried as those pregnancy hormones raged.
And it probably never stopped.
The whispers.
The comments.
She was permanently labeled.
And not in a good way.
Mary could have listened to those lies, allowing them to define her.
But she knew they weren’t true.
All she had to do was look upon the face of God’s son Jesus, the sweet boy running around her house.
All she had to do was ask God to remind her of His purposes for her.
All she had to do was choose to believe God’s identity for her instead of the world’s.
How about you?
What identity do you embrace that is not from our loving God?
What whispered lies or comments do you bring into your heart, believing them instead of God’s truth?
Amy Linnea 
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