Today Steve and Bob’s goal is make humility more practical. . .to foster its multiplication in all our lives. One of the aspects of humility is the truth about ourselves. This immediately takes us into the category of identity. Dallas Willard says, “Identity controls behavior.”
We need to ask, “How does God describe me?” Am I going to line up with what God says is true about me? There is a truth about who I was without Jesus. . .but we need to identify with who we are with Jesus.
I don’t live by my feelings. I live by the identity that God has placed on me. I want to live from God’s perspective, not my distorted perspective.
Many of us who are followers of Jesus live like orphans. We don’t understand that we are sons and daughters of God, that we have truly been adopted. We still carry a slave mentality. Once we understand and embrace the truth that we are loved and valued, no matter what we did or what has been done to us, we enter into a new level of freedom.
Bob says, “This truth has created confidence in me. . .because I know my Daddy loves me. When I know I’m loved I’m not trying to impress others; I’m not trying to earn love.”
All of us have picked up false identities through life. . .things we and others have said about us that are lies. They crush our security. When we don’t know who we are we are insecure.
Join us in a simple exercise:
- Ask the Holy Spirit, “Show me any false identities I have picked up along the road of life.” Write them on a piece of paper.
- Now, ask Father, “Who do you say I am?” Write these truths on a second piece of paper.
- Take the list of false identities and renounce them. If possible, burn this list. . .or at the very least tear it up and throw it away.
- Now take the list of true identities and celebrate them, rehearse them, put them somewhere you will see them daily and declare them out loud over yourself.
The above exercise is a process of humbling ourselves.
