504 A Changed Identity

There’s nothing in your life God can’t work with and through. There’s nothing in your past he can’t use, and nothing in your future he will be shocked by. He knows the end from the beginning, and while you are given free choice in your life, you can’t screw this thing up beyond God’s repair. There’s no mess he can’t make a message out of, and no pain he can’t create purpose in. There’s no curveball that can be thrown in your life that can’t be knocked out of the park with God’s power. In this new year of life God will be working in your circumstances to bring you fuller into his plan. He will be working through your struggles to make you more like who you were created to be. He will be working in every detail to guide you in living up to your potential. And through it all, he will change you. That’s what God does, he works through seemingly ordinary events and struggles common to everyone, and he uses it all to change you. Change how you see yourself. Yes, change your identity. Many of us are struggling our way through life because we have a case of mistaken identity. We’ve taken on the role of a character we were never intended to be. We’ve assumed the position of a wanderer not knowing the way, when we have a destiny deep within us. We’ve put on the clothes of a stressed worried soul, when through Christ we are clothed in righteousness and commanded not to fear. Mistaken identity. Do you know who you are? Do you understand the power dwelling within you? In scripture we see several people who had taken on an identity of less than favorable circumstances, then God comes in and rocks their world. And it starts with a name change. Sarai was a broken, barren old woman whose entire world was defined by her inability to have children. It had consumed her for decades. Her value and worth was wrapped up in this one thing. She was broken. Then God shows up. But you see, God had always been there. He had always had a plan. He had made a way, but her entire life she couldn’t see the way. For years (I mean like 70 years) she waited for a baby until all hope was gone at the age of 90. And what happened? First, God changed her identity. He changed her name from Sarai to Sarah. And with that, her whole world changed. Her husband who was named Abram was given the new name Abraham, meaning the father of many nations. And the father of many nations he became. 40 generations later, through this exact lineage came Jesus. But first there was a broken woman who God gave a new name, and a new identity. 6 days after my high school graduation I received a new name. I went from Pam Freeman, the daughter of Roy and Linda Freeman, to Pam Crim, the wife of Lonnie Crim. With my new name came a new role, and a new identity. 5 years later my name changed once again. With the birth of our son Logan, I became Mom. And at some point in the future another birth in our family will once again change my identity, and I will become a Grandma. (Side note, I’m totally on the bandwagon of choosing your own super cool Grandma name … I will be Granny P because you know my love of P words up in here!) What if this year, God wants to change your identity. He wants to change how you see yourself. What if you’ve had a case of mistaken identity and the reason why life hasn’t been working is because you’ve been playing your role as someone you were never created to be? Allow your mistaken identity to come face to face with Jesus and watch your world change! My favorite name changing game changer in the Bible is of course Paul. Paul, the great crusader for Christ who wrote the majority of the new testament we read today, was once Saul, the persecutor of all Christians looking for a head to cut off. But when Saul encounter God on the road to where he was g...