God Says You Are E-Book

Jeremy Bouma

• Herausgeber: BroadStreet Publishing Group, LLC
• Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2015

Seitenzahl: 132

Beschreibung

What messages are you listening to? You're too slow; you don't measure up; you're not good enough? But who does God say you are—the One who made and saved you, the God who knows you better than you know yourself? If you knew who you really were, you wouldn't want to be anyone else. This book is a guide to your true identity in your Creator and Savior. It organizes who God says you are from the Bible in relevant, alphabetical topics, making it the perfect reference when you need God's reassurance most. Short devotions at the beginning of each topic will breathe new life into how you see yourself and understand your identity.

Leseprobe

BroadStreet Publishing Group

Racine, Wisconsin, USA

www.broadstreetpublishing.com

GOD SAYS YOU ARE

Understanding Your Identity in Christ

© 2015 Jeremy Bouma

ISBN-13: 978-1-4245-5078-4 (hard cover)

ISBN-13: 978-1-4245-5079-1 (e-book)

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without permission in writing from the publisher.

Scripture quotations marked TPT are taken from The Psalms: Poetry on Fire, Proverbs: Wisdom from Above, Matthew: Our Loving King, Luke and Acts: To the Lovers of God, John: Eternal Love, Romans: Grace and Glory, Letters from Heaven by the Apostle Paul, and Hebrews and James: Faith Works, The Passion Translation®, copyright © 2014. Used by permission of BroadStreet Publishing Group, LLC, Racine, Wisconsin, USA. All rights reserved. Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright ©1996, 2004, 2007, 2013 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved. Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations marked HCSB®, are taken from the Holman Christian Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2009 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. HCSB® is a federally registered trademark of Holman Bible Publishers.

Cover design by Chris Garborg at www.garborgdesign.com

Typesetting by Katherine Lloyd at www.TheDESKonline.com

Stock or custom editions of BroadStreet Publishing titles may be purchased in bulk for educational, business, ministry, fundraising, or sales promotional use. For information, please e-mail [email protected].

Printed in China

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CONTENTS

Introduction

ABLE

ABUNDANT

ACCEPTED

ADOPTED

ALIVE

BEFRIENDED

BLAMELESS

BLESSED

CALLED

CHERISHED

CHOSEN

CREATED

DEFENDED

DELIVERED

FAMILY

FORGIVEN

FOUND

FREE

FULFILLED

GIFTED

GRACED

GUIDED

GUILTLESS

HEARD

HEAVEN-BOUND

HOLY

KNOWN

LIBERATED

LOVED

POWERFUL

PROSPEROUS

PURPOSEFUL

REBORN

RECONCILED

REMEMBERED

RESCUED

RESTORED

RIGHTEOUS

SAFE

SAVED

SECURE

SINLESS

STABLE

STRONG

SUPPORTED

TRANSFORMED

UNITED

UNASHAMED

VALUABLE

VICTORIOUS

WISE

Introduction

When I was a teenager I was bullied. For all of junior and most of high school I wasn’t “Jeremy Bouma.” Instead, my identity was entirely defined by the names my bullies called me. Twenty years later, I still find myself struggling with knowing who I really am. Maybe you can relate.

Whether you’re fifteen or fifty, every day we’re fed countless messages from a host of people telling us who we are. Work says we’re slow. Society says we don’t measure up. That inner voice tells us we’re not good enough.

But who does God say you are? The One who made and saved you, the God who knows you better than you know yourself?

It’s only been in the past few years that I’ve been able to fully understand the depths of that question—and its answers. What I’ve discovered is when you know who you really are, you won’t want to be anyone else. And who you really are is who God says you are!

Here is your guide to your true identity in your Creator and Savior. It organizes all of who God says you are from the Bible in relevant topics, making it the perfect reference when you need God’s reassurance most. Short devotions at the beginning of each topic will breathe new life into how you see yourself and understand your identity.

So who are you, really? Able and accepted, cherished and chosen, forgiven and free, known and not guilty, secure and strong, whole and wholly his.

This is what I’ve been discovering is true about myself. The more I dive deeply into God’s Word, the more I realize what God says about me is what ultimately matters. Not people, not myself—God.

I hope you discover the same liberating truth.

ABLE

One of the most insidious lies of our Enemy is the two-word phrase: “You can’t.” You can’t be the kind of parent your child needs; you can’t get the job done; you can’t provide food and clothing and the occasional vacation for your family.

Guess what? God says otherwise!

“I can” is one of the most important lessons we can learn from our identity in our Creator and Savior. In story after story throughout God’s Word, we see people who thought they couldn’t, yet God proved them wrong. They were able to do what they could do because God was with them and empowered them.

Moses thought he couldn’t lead God’s people out of Egypt, but God said otherwise. David wondered if he could survive King Saul’s manhunt, but God said he could. Jeremiah didn’t think he could stand up to God’s people, but God said he was able.

In the Bible we learn we are able because God is strong, he helps his faithful ones, and he has empowered us to accomplish what he’s called us to do.

Samuel’s words remind us we can “scale any wall.” David tells us with God’s help we can do mighty things and walk through anything that devastates us. God raises us up and helps those who fail. And Paul boldly declares we are able to do all things because of God’s mighty strength and power.

Our Enemy is wrong: You can, because God says you are able!

In your strength I can crush an army;

with my God I can scale any wall.

2 SAMUEL 22:30 NLT

Cast your cares on the LORD

and he will sustain you;

he will never let

the righteous be shaken.

PSALM 55:22 NIV

God said to me once and for all,

“All the strength and power you need flows from me!”

PSALM 62:11 TPT

With God’s help we will do mighty things,

for he will trample down our foes.

PSALM 108:13 NLT

Through your mighty power

I can walk through any devastation,

and you will keep me alive, reviving me.

Your power set me free from the hatred of my enemies.

PSALM 138:7 TPT

The LORD helps all who fall;

He raises up all who are oppressed.

PSALM 145:14 HCSB

I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do all this through him who gives me strength.

PHILIPPIANS 4:12–13 NIV

ABUNDANT

There is this often told story about the way hunters capture monkeys in India. As the story goes, they set baskets filled with peanuts beneath trees to lure the wily, wiggly creatures from hiding.

What’s important about these baskets is the opening at the top. It is just large enough for the monkey to reach his arm into the basket to grab a handful of peanuts. When it does, the hunter merely walks over, grabs the monkey, and stuffs it in his sack. The monkey’s hand is so full of peanuts that it can’t remove its arm. It is so intent on keeping those peanuts, that it would rather get caught than drop them to find freedom—to stay alive!

The first time I heard this story it was in the context of scarcity and abundance. The speaker said that sometimes we are so blinded by a scarcity mentality—the belief we are in a state of lack and have nothing or risk losing something—that we can’t see how much we have, how much abundance we have.

Dwelling and focusing on our lack ruins our lives—much like the monkey who couldn’t let go, and paid the ultimate price.

It’s also a lie. Because as the Bible tells us, in Christ we are abundant, enriched in every way; the storehouses of heaven have been poured out on us in plenty, a love gift from our Father. The lovers of God have more than enough!

The next time that inner voice tries to trick you into believing your life lacks, remember instead that you are abundant!

The LORD is my shepherd;

I have all that I need.

PSALM 23:1 NLT

The lovers of God will have more than enough,

but the wicked will always lack what they crave.

PROVERBS 13:25 TPT

For God has proved his love by giving us his greatest treasure, the gift of his Son. And since God freely offered him up as the sacrifice for us all, he certainly won’t withhold from us anything else he has to give.

ROMANS 8:32 TPT

I always thank my God for you because of his grace given you in Christ Jesus. For in him you have been enriched in every way—with all kinds of speech and with all knowledge.

1 CORINTHIANS 1:5 NIV

And God will generously provide all you need. Then you will always have everything you need and plenty left over to share with others.

2 CORINTHIANS 9:8 NLT

Everything heaven contains has already been lavished upon us as a love gift from our wonderful heavenly Father, the Father of our Lord Jesus—all because he sees us wrapped into Christ. This is why we celebrate him with all our hearts!

EPHESIANS 1:3 TPT

ACCEPTED

One of my lifelong struggles has been a struggle for acceptance. Perhaps it stems from my teenage years and the rejection I endured from my peers. Well into adulthood, I have longed for community and for people to accept me.

Yet what I’m beginning to realize is that the acceptance I’ve been longing for most of my life has been mine all along! That’s because God himself accepts me—just as I am. Look at how his Word to us describes this acceptance.

King David writes that God treats and accepts us as a “friend.” We have received the Spirit of Full Acceptance, so that we will never again be orphaned; we find a faithful, accepting father in our heavenly Father! While others may reject us, God doesn’t; we are his, we are his “darlings.” Perhaps most important of all, we are God’s children. We have received everything from our heavenly Father that a genuine earthly child receives from their earthly one, including acceptance.

It’s taken me awhile to realize it, but I am not abandoned or rejected. I am accepted—by my heavenly Father, by my Creator. That is who I really am. I am accepted.

I’ve found that when I fully lean into and trust this part of my identity, it makes all the difference!

The LORD is a friend to those who fear him.

He teaches them his covenant.

PSALM 25:14 NLT

“For a brief moment I abandoned you,

but with great compassion I will take you back.”

ISAIAH 54:7 NLT

And you did not receive the “spirit of religious duty,” leading you back into the fear of never being good enough. But you have received the “Spirit of Full Acceptance,” enfolding you into the family of God. And you will never feel orphaned, for as he rises up within us, our spirits join him in saying the words of tender affection, “Beloved Father, Abba!”

ROMANS 8:15 TPT

Remember the prophecy God gave in Hosea:

“To those who were rejected

and not my people, I will say to them:

‘You are mine.’

And to those who were unloved I will say:

‘You are my darling.’”

ROMANS 9:25 TPT

Now you are no longer a slave but God’s own child. And since you are his child, God has made you his heir.

GALATIANS 4:7 NLT

ADOPTED

It’s been said when someone takes leave of God we should ask, “What sort of God did they leave behind?”

For some of us, the God we’ve always known is a dictator or taskmaster—commanding us to do this or that, and punishing us when we mess up.

But what if there is a different way to view God? The view of a loving Father relating to his adopted children?

It’s a remarkable picture, isn’t it? Adoption is arguably one of the purest expressions of love, because a person or a couple intentionally brings a child who is not personally theirs into their very personal family life. That’s the picture God gives of how he relates to us; he is an adoptive Father to us, his adopted children!

Paul tells us in Ephesians that at one point in history God decided to adopt us into his family—and we are fully adopted children. Not a quarter of the way there, not halfway adopted—fully. John says it best: “See how very much our Father loves us, for he calls us his children, and that is what we are!” (1 John 3:1 NLT).

It might be unusual or even difficult to picture your identity in this way, but according to God’s Word you really are God’s child; God says you are adopted!

Which means you have all of the rights and privileges that come from being a full son or daughter of God: his comfort and care, his provision and protection, his love and acceptance.

For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God.

ROMANS 8:14 NLT

The Spirit Himself testifies together with our spirit that we are God’s children, and if children, also heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ—seeing that we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him.

ROMANS 8:16–17 HCSB

It is not merely the natural offspring of Abraham who are considered the children of God; rather, the children born because of God’s promise are counted as descendants.

ROMANS 9:8 TPT

“I will be a Father to you,

And you shall be My sons and daughters,

Says the LORD Almighty.”

2 CORINTHIANS 6:18 NKJV

But when that era came to an end and the time of fulfillment had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the written Law. Yet all of this was so that he would redeem and set free all those held hostage to the written Law so that we would receive our freedom and a full legal adoption as his children.

GALATIANS 4:4–5 TPT

God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure.

EPHESIANS 1:5 NLT

See how very much our Father loves us, for he calls us his children, and that is what we are!

1 JOHN 3:1 NLT

ALIVE

Many days I don’t feel alive. Perhaps you understand what I mean.

Maybe it’s because of my temperament, but often I feel beaten down by life—not enlivened by life. From work responsibilities to home improvement projects to bills and loan payments, sometimes I struggle just to survive.