Devotional Archives--The Real You

April 4, 2005 —

Who Is the Real You?

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!”  2 Corinthians 5:17 (NIV)

Have you ever wondered just who the “real” you is?

In the weeks before I launched Soul Scents (over a year ago), I went through a tough season and spent an afternoon hurling the venom of my disappointments all over my husband. I questioned everything I believed in, everything I’d built my life upon.

Later that evening, appalled by my sinful attitudes and lack of faith, I told my husband I was sorry for dumping on him and added, “I don’t know if it’s appropriate for me to write when I’m like this.”

“That’s not the real you, honey,” he said. “The one talking this afternoon was the old self."

His words of truth hit their mark.

The outward mistakes and faults aren’t the real us. That’s just the old person that God promises to remake to be like Christ. It’s the old us that’s falling away, bit by bit, as the Father leads us to Himself. The real us is the one remade when Christ entered.

The Bible calls people who’ve accepted Jesus a new creation. I love how 2 Corinthians 5:17 reads in the New Living Translation: ^“What this means is that those who become Christians become new persons. They are not the same anymore, for the old life is gone. A new life has begun!”

The enemy of our soul wants us to believe we’re still that messed up person of the past. He tells us we’re not “good enough” for the service God calls us to. He points out our mistakes and tries to make us believe that we are failures, unfit for God’s plans.

Sometimes we feel tempted to give up the very things we’re passionate about. I most often feel unworthy of serving Him in motherhood, homeschooling, and writing—the three clearest callings in this season of my life. I believe the attack was especially intense as I started Soul Scents because the enemy wanted to stop the plans God had for me.

The truth is the real us is the person on the inside—where Christ moved in and made us perfect. Our outsides aren’t perfect, because they are still in process.

Is the real you being tested? Does your old person war so hard against the new one that you can’t find yourself or your beliefs today? Just remember. That’s not the real you. It’s just the battle.

“Father, Help me to truly understand that I’m a new person in Christ.”

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April 11, 2005 -

The Real You Is Qualified

For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. 2 Corinthians 5:21 (NJKV)

A deep, beautiful snow fills our city tonight. I awoke this morning to the swirling white flakes and watched them fall off and on throughout the day and evening. A snowfall like this slows the pace of even the large metropolis where we live and I stayed home all day, embracing the unusual snail pace that descended upon our home. A heavy snow almost always puts me in the mood to bake homemade cinnamon rolls and the leisurely day allowed me to begin the process.

It was a restful day for me. The boys built an igloo outside playing happily for hours and my daughter emailed a friend. As I piddled in the kitchen, the spicy sweet cinnamon aroma wafting through our home, I began to reflect upon things I haven’t had much time to think about. In the quiet I felt the Lord tug upon my heart, calling me to a particular spiritual task.

I wiped the table, enjoying the warmth of the oven and anticipating good family time over plates of sticky rolls. Then a nasty thought interrupted my peace. “You have no right to serve God that way. You don’t measure up in that area.”

My failings tumbled through my thoughts and for a moment my throat squeezed tight. I felt unworthy to follow the earlier prompting.

Then God gently reminded me that none of us are good enough to serve Him based upon our ability to live with perfection. But those of us who’ve accepted His free gift of salvation don’t have to worry about that.

I rejected the feelings of unworthiness and purposed again to do the task God asked of me. The enemy has often attacked me as I seek to live in spiritual obedience. Sometimes the attacks have briefly shut me down, but I’m learning to reject anything that goes against God’s word of salvation.

In 2 Corinthians 5:12 we learn that God made Christ, who knew no sin, to take our sins upon Himself so we could become the righteousness of God. If we’re to live for God from the inner person, the person God has clothed with His righteousness, then we must not worry about whether or not we are qualified when He calls us to serve.

Just a moment ago my daughter and I enjoyed a few moments outside together. The beautiful falling snow coated our hair, clothes, and even our eyelashes. I thought again about how I am clothed in Christ’s righteousness and how His grace keeps blanketing me, like the snow that hasn’t stopped all day. By His work, and no perfection of my own, the real me is qualified to serve.

 “Look to thy perfect Lord, and remember, thou art complete in Him; thou art in God's sight as perfect as if thou hadst never sinned; nay, more than that, the Lord our Righteousness hath put a divine garment upon thee, so that thou hast more than the righteousness of man—thou hast the righteousness of God.”   ~ C. H. Spurgeon

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April 18, 2005 -

Uncovering the Real You

A few years ago I worked as Director of Children’s Ministries for a church. I enjoyed many aspects of the job and even considered returning to school for a degree in family ministry. But, strangely, once I felt God released me from it, I no longer had a desire to serve in that particular way. I now believe God empowered me to meet the need at the time, but that the position didn’t tap into the deepest places of how God wired me.

In conversing with a friend later, she mentioned that while she felt I did a good job in as director, there was a disconnect as she watched me serve. She said some of the skills I used for it were more like a hat I put on than a natural flowing from my inner person. This same friend sees my present writing ministry as a natural and full expression of the person God made me to be.

We often go through life putting on the roles other people expect us to play like we put on a spring sweater. The roles scratch and pull at us while our inner person struggles to make them fit. The passion and joy God wants us to experience fades into a job of drudgery.

Sometimes we end up in these ill-fitting roles because we hear of a need and feel responsible to fill it. This can be especially true if we know we have some skills or training that would make us able to do the job.

Other times we play the role to please someone else—a parent, a boss, or a spouse, etc. It is possible to stay a long time in a role that never fit in the first place. Functioning in the role makes us irritable and leaves us feeling unfulfilled and dissatisfied, but we don’t know how to back out of it—and we don’t even realize that we’ve been wearing it like that ill-fitting sweater.

Sometimes it’s not even which role we play or which job we do, it’s how we do it. We don’t serve with passion because we try to do the job the way someone else does or the way we think we should do it to please others.

While I believe that God can empower us to serve for time in a way that isn’t necessarily a fit, I also believe that He has gifted each of us to serve Him in our own, unique way.

These roles, though they may sometimes challenge us and are plain old hard work, slide over us in a soft, comfortable fit. They move with us, feel good on us, and blend perfectly with our natural make-up. When we serve out of the inner person we discover passion for the job we’re doing.

Have you thought about whom the real you really is? Do you serve from your inner person or just put on a sweater someone else thinks you should wear?

As we learn to operate from the real person inside, discovering the soul God placed within us, His fragrance flows stronger, leaving a sweet, genuine scent trailing after us. As long as we serve out of an outer, artificial place, His perfume is trapped inside, waiting to be released.

Our Lord knows exactly how He’s wired us to serve Him. He knows our size, the best color for us, and which fabric feels just right on our skin. When we let Him uncover the real person within we’ll find that the roles He gives us are a perfect fit.

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April 25, 2005 -

Freeing the Real You

A while back I had to prepare a book proposal. I labored over it, fretting, trying to make it perfect. While I love to write, I don’t love writing proposals, synopsis, or resumes!

I remember thinking that my fiction writing felt “right” like wearing my comfy overalls and my favorite dangly silver bracelets, but trying to prepare a perfect proposal felt as uncomfortable as wearing a suit! Some people were made for the business world and thrive in suits. Not me!

I suppose what makes book proposal writing so difficult for me is I feel the pressure to “sell” the book, to find a way to present it that will fit a publisher’s needs and expectations. I’m trying to impress the editor.

As we search for the real person inside, we can get off track by symbolic resume writing. If we try to discover who we really are by looking at our lists of accomplishments or putting our selling face on, we’re in trouble.

Anytime we resume write we’re trying to impress someone else. And, any time our search for ourselves takes us to someone else’s expectations or needs, we’ve lost perspective.

Most people know us by what we do or how we act. And they probably have their opinions about what we’re good at based upon their knowledge of us and, perhaps, upon their hopes for us.

But, there is only One Person who sees us completely for who we are instead of for what we do—Our Father. He’s the only One who can see completely beyond our performance and into our heart.

It is easy to fall into the trap of living our lives to please other people. We feel pressured to meet their expectations and earn their approval. But the more we do that, the more we lose ourselves. Our self-esteem becomes rooted in their opinions.

When we give ourselves over to the Lordship of the Father and base our identity in God’s love, we are set free to discover who we really are. If our place of acceptance is found in God, who loves unconditionally, we find we don’t have to perform to gain His approval.

Our need to resume write disappears as our sense of worth is grounded in who we are (beloved children of the Father) instead of what we do.

Once our worth is grounded in Christ, it easier to take off the ill-fitting sweaters we talked about last week. We no longer need to wear roles that aren’t made for us because the Father meets our need for attention, love, and approval. And once that need is met we are free to find who we really are.

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May 2, 2005 -

Unveiling

Perhaps you’ve taken off the ill-fitting sweater of roles that aren’t really you. You’ve quit resume writing and asked God to base your self-esteem in His unconditional love. You decide the only Person’s expectations you’re going to try to meet are those of your Heavenly Father. Are you free now to discover the “real” you?

It depends on what you see as the Father’s expectations. Do you really know what they are? Misunderstanding them puts you right back into that ill-fitting sweater. And more than likely you’ll feel you don’t measure up. The peace of His unconditional love will slip away and you’ll start resume writing again to gain the approval you need.

This has happened to me. I think I know what God expects. After all, people have told me—from the pulpit, in the books I read, in conversations, and at the conferences I’ve attended. I begin to shape a picture from all of these external sources about what God expects of me. I want to please Him so I set about trying to live the picture I’ve formed—and before you know it, I’m wearing a bunch of ill-fitting sweaters again.

Has that ever happened to you? Have you attended a conference and come away with a whole list of things you think you should DO to please God and fulfill the roles you are told He has for you? Has it helped you discover the “real” you, or just made you feel defeated? The Bible does tell us there is wisdom in many counselors and I’ve gained valuable insight from others, but too often we accept the image we create without really going to the Source, God and His Word.

Sometimes we are victims of our past. We’ve accepted identities that come out of our experiences, both good and bad, and these identities hold us in a box, keeping us from knowing who we really are. We naturally listen to the opinions of others as we develop our self-concept, but our insecurities can trap us in other people’s opinions, blocking true self-discovery.

It’s easier to talk with a friend, take a spiritual gifts test, or attend a class on discovering your passions than it is to be still and get to know the Father. We Americans want the quick answers—give me a multiple-choice test and I’ll pick b and know who I am. While God can use these tools, no standardized list can reveal the inner person so completely that you burn to follow the passion.

True self-discovery comes only as we relate to Christ. It is the Holy Spirit that reveals our deepest selves.

God knows us better than our spouse knows us, our parents know us, or even better than we know ourselves. Every person has been uniquely created to interact with God in our own special way, and that includes the way we serve Him. Without Him we are incomplete and incapable of being all we were created to be.

God’s expectations are more about BEING then DOING. He tells us to rest in Christ—to embrace our new identity as saved, beloved, cleansed children. Too often we ask the Lord what He wants us to DO before we ask who He wants us to BE.

As we give ourselves over into God’s hands and surrender our wills to His Person, He begins to unveil the work of art He created when He formed us in our mother’s womb. As we talk with Him, He reveals passions and gifts within us.

Want to discover the real you? The amazing artwork that is rich, full, brimming with passion and beauty? Get to know the Master Artist and let Him point out His perfect brushstrokes in your life.

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