Some days I feel like a one-string banjo player—I just keep talking about the same thing over and over. But I know that this is what God has equipped me for, and continues to empower through me. My repetition? Your identity in Christ and deepening relationship with Him no matter what the circumstances. Some might question why I keep harping on these things.

Why is your identity in Christ so important? Because most of the stupid choices we make or the things we try to fill our lives with are because we have no idea who we are. We try to make sex our god, using others and letting them use us with no idea of what we are worth outside of physical appearance. We live at the top-level of stress because of a career we believe defines us, all while terrified that we might not have identity without it. Things get really dicey when we retire or lose a job. So many of us are constantly thirsting for acceptance and love, believing if we could just find the right combination of satiation we would be filled up.

Instead, I want to wake people up to who Jesus calls them—beloved, accepted, worthy, known, heard, remembered, complete, lacking nothing, purposeful, forgiven, valued. And all of this is based in who He is, so we can’t mess it up. If you don’t know who you are and have tried to figure it out through all sorts of different means, stop and ask Him right now. He loves to tell His kids how much He adores them.

The other obsession of mine is relationship with Jesus. God is not dead. He is not stagnant, passive or gone. He hears, and He speaks. He is living, and so often we treat Him as if we have to figure it out without Him and try to keep Him happy. He is already happy, and wants relationship with you. Jesus calls you, no matter what the circumstance, to come tell Him all about it. He will provide what you need, and will keep bringing peace to chaos, freedom to captivity, life to death and beauty to ashes. He deals in opposites quite frequently. When we are expecting the surroundings to line up with what we think we want, He brings something out of left field that doesn’t make any sense but is exactly love for us.  

No matter what is going on around you, focus on asking God who He says you are and how He wants to bring you closer to Himself. This isn’t a to-do list, but a relaxation into a beautiful, safe relationship unlike anything else you’ve ever known or experienced.

 Eternal life means to know and experience you as the only true God, and to know and experience Jesus Christ, as the Son whom you have sent. John 17:3

Now, this is what Yahweh says: “Listen, Jacob, to the One who created you, Israel, to the one who shaped who you are. Do not fear, for I, your Kinsman-Redeemer, will rescue you. I have called you by name, and you are mine. Isaiah 43:1