Me:  What are you up to Prodigal?

Prodigal:  I just finished cleaning out the garage.

Me:  How did it go?

Prodigal:  That was as much fun as choppin’ wood in a nighttime blizzard.

 

This is from the book Uninvited by Lysa Terkeurst

 

Here’s the deal…..when my identity is tied to circumstances I become extremely insecure because circumstances are unpredictable and ever-changing.  I rise and fall with successes and failures.  I feel treasured when complimented but tormented when criticized.  I’m desperate to keep a relationship that makes me feel valuable.  Then I’m constantly terrified of that person slipping away.  Because I don’t just feel like I’m losing them…I feel like I’m losing a big part of myself as well.

My fearful mantra is “I must keep things good so I can be good.”

The exhausting manipulation and control it takes to protect an identity based on circumstances will crush our hearts and hide the best of who we are behind a wall of insecurity.  It’s time to stop the lies and devastating hurt stemming from this kind of circumstantial identity.  We must tie our identities to our unchanging, unflinching, unyielding, undeniably good, and unquestionably loving God.  And the ties that truly bind me to Him and the truth of who I am in Him are given to me in those quiet moments where I say, “I’m YOURS, God.

 

Revelation 4:11

Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created.

 

Jennifer Van Allen

 

www.theprodigalpig.com

www.faithincounseling.org