Follower's Questions Answered:
"how do you constantly keep in touch with your own spiritual and literal identity and what you do when/if you ever falter?"
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2 Corinthians 5:13, "If we are crazy, it’s for God’s sake. If we are rational, it’s for your sake."
Spiritual Identity:
Well the truth is, I don't constantly keep in touch with my spiritual identity, at least not as in touch as I want to be. My family goes to church every Sunday, but sometimes, as you move through the week, its easy to forget where you started and lose sight of who God wants you to be. So here are different ways to get back into touch with God, and stay in an ever-growing relationship with Him:
- Go to Church- I don't know about you, but I can tell by my mood, whether I went to church on Sunday. It starts your week of right. The leaders in my church always have inspiration, as well as questions to ponder as they send me into the world. God made sure we had spiritual leaders to guide us through life.
- Establish relationships with other Christians-I believe it is important to not only go to church, but to be the church. Get involved! Make friends, have a conversation, go to Sunday school, get involved in a small group! These commitments at some point may feel like a chore, but that is when you need them most! Having those routines and relationships with other Christians will help you get back into your relationship with God. Always ask your Christian community to pray for you when you hit a rough patch, and encourage your group with stories of times when you could tell God was working in your life. If you have a community of people who are always encouraging you to do spiritually healthy things, and who are helping you through the tough points in your relationship with Christ, that will be a big help in getting back on track.
- Make a personal routine with God- Having a community of Christians to go through life with is great, in fact, vital, to your faith life. But if you can't have a one-on-one conversation with God, well, that's a problem. If you decide, your going to pray to God every night before you go to sleep and when you are feeling anxious, that's step one to starting your personal relationship with God. Remember, your prayers don't have to be jam packed with, "art thou"s, "thy"s and other fancy words. They can be as simple as, "God this hard situation is going on and I know You are here somewhere, but I don't know where. Show me please." For more info on praying creatively click here. Another great way to establish a routine is to get a devotional app. I love the YouVersion Bible App! It's completely free, you can get it on Apple or Android, and it has devotions on every topic imaginable!!
- Remember, your routine with God, is about your relationship with God- Last year, I was doing devotions on the Bible app everyday. I was highlighting verses, checking off passages, and my streak was up to 12 weeks. I was proud. But one day, I missed it. I got busy, didn't get time to visit the app and read my devos. When I discovered this, I was distraught. I had visited this app every day for eighty days, and now, because of one misstep, I was back to day one. I decided that I might as well not check back in to my devotions. (and I didn't for months) My streak was lost and that's all I was working towards. You see, instead of having my eyes on Jesus, I had my eyes on a big, one hundred day streak. In the words of Lauren Daigle I needed to Turn My Eyes Upon Jesus. Despite the fact that I had done devotion, after devotion, and read passage after passage, I had not got much out of it. Not because the devotions weren't good or meaningful, but because I wasn't absorbing them. What could have been a great time to work on my relationship with God, turned into nothing but a meaningless to do list. This reminds me of a great song, I Don't Wanna Go Through the Motions By Matthew West. And guess what, when you mess up in a relationship with Christ, your not back to day one. You are right where you were before. Our relationship with Christ is a journey, not a ladder. On a journey if you fall down you can get back up and be in the same place, a little bruised, but right where you were before. On a ladder if you fall down your starting back at the beginning. God made this a journey kind of relationship because Jesus died knowing we're imperfect. So if you make a mistake, don't give up on your self because God is not giving up on you.
Literal Identity:
- I may not fit in but... I am lucky to grow up in a family that embraces all our quirks. I remember every time one of my older sister's friends called her weird she'd say, "Why thank you!" and finish the statement off with a funny facial expression. I, being the younger sister, thought this was brilliant and decided to adopt the same mindset! This, "I may not fit in but I still have something worth sharing" mindset helped me to become as comfortable with myself as I am today!
- "You don't belong here. " Is equivalent to "You belong somewhere else"- As Christians I believe this is something we should remind ourselves everyday. So many times we are reminded we don't belong here. This can hurt. But there is a flip side to this statement. If we don't belong in this world, we belong in heaven. Read Romans 12:2,'' And do not be conformed to this [a]world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may [b]prove what the will of God is, that which is good and [c]acceptable and perfect." Just listen to, "Where I Belong". So every time you think, or somebody tells you, "You don't belong here." Tell yourself, "Correct, I do not belong here, I belong in heaven."
- You become your surrounding environment: Maybe your saying,"Right now I am in touch with my identity, but how do I stay that way?" Well, you become your environment. So if you surround yourself with people that don't reflect who you are and who you want to become... you need to change that. If your entertainment fills your mind with things you don't want to become your norm... you need to change that. Is there any other fixable aspect in your environment that doesn't line up with your values? I say fixable because not everything in our world is going to line up with what we believe. For example, not everybody at your workplace or school is going to act the way you act, but if you continually remind yourself that you don't belong to this world, you will avoid this, and hopefully conform some of the world to you in the process. The problem comes when the people you spend intimate time with aren't magnifying and embracing who you are as a child of God.
- God created YOU for a purpose: Another way to stay in touch with yourself is to stay in touch with God. God created you, so He knows who you are, better than anyone (even yourself). That's one reason its so important to CONSTANTLY be in relationship with God, because you are constantly changing and growing. God is constantly redefining you.
- Labels are not your whole identity-Speaking of defining you, God is the only one allowed to do that. So many times we hear "labels don't define you", which is sometimes true, and sometimes only kinda true. You see, some labels are part of my identity. I am a dancer, that is one label I have and it is a big part of who I am, but that is not all I am. It's important to find the difference between changing our labels to fit us, and changing who we are to fit our label.
- Newsflash: you won't always be a baby-I'm sure you already know this, as you are reading this blog post (unless you are a really smart baby). But just like our bodies and our ages grow and change, our identity and interests grow and change. So if you know that you don't seem the same as you were a few years ago don't worry that you are, "not yourself''. It may just mean that who you are has changed. That is a healthy and important change. That means you get to experience things from a new perspective.
Who you are may grow and change but you will always be a child of God despite your inevitable stumbling. Jesus will always get you back on track! Listen to Who You Say I Am by clicking here.
A poem to close:
Enough
When my heart
tells me,
“Your not
Enough”
I remind myself…
No one said
I had to be best
No one said
I had to be as good
No one said
I have to be perfect
No one said
That I should break myself
To become the one
who came before
No one said
All the things
I’ve told myself
No one said
This wouldn’t be tough
No one said
I wasn’t
good enough.
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