FINDING YOUR IDENTITY IN CHRIST

my name is melissa and this is how to find your identity in christ [Music] so first off let's define what is your identity and how do we find our identity and often times this can be explained by answering the question what do you find your success in so for me if you haven't watched my testimony you can find the link to it down in the description below but i was a model and so for me a lot of times what i found my success in was how beautiful do i look how many followers on social media do i have how many men desire me and want me or how much i weigh what's the number on the scale those were the things that i found my identity in because they were what i thought was successful and oftentimes women tend to think along those lines but for men maybe it's things like how much money do i make how successful am i at my job sometimes it's what you look like how strong tall dark and handsome am i and so we spend our lives trying to find our identity in this and in this but god is actually inviting us to find our identity in him so today i'm going to tell you two steps of how you can find your identity in christ and at the end of this video i'm actually going to give you guys a free downloadable resource for you to work through these things for yourself so the first step to finding your identity in christ is actually what we call renewing your mind and it comes from romans 12 2 which says do not be conformed to this age so the things of this world the trying to be the model or trying to have all the stuff trying to be successful in this age that's what we tend to conform our life around we want to conform around what we see on tv what we see in the magazines but instead god asks us to do this but be transformed by the renewing of your mind and so according to the bible in order for us to be transformed and actually find our identity in god we first have to renew our minds and so how do we do this when i began my journey on trying to find my identity in christ and trying to live for him not for the things of this age this is what i did and i actually encourage you to do the same so if you want to get notes if you want to get out a journal and do this later you definitely can or you can download the template i give you later but the first thing that you're going to want to do is you're going to want to write down those things that you tend to find your identity in so what is it for you like me a lot of it was what i looked like but for you it might be in finding your identity in your successes or in your stuff or the clothes you wear or the car you drive whatever it is make a list of all the things that you tend to find your identity in and oftentimes you actually can answer that question by asking what are the things that i fear most and so for me i actually wrote down a whole list of all the things that i feared so every day what were the fears that i struggled with i struggled with the fear of not being pretty enough the fear of gaining weight or not being skinny the fear of not being good enough or not being wanted and accepted by men those were the things that i feared and so for you maybe write all those things down because what our fears actually show us is the lies that we're actually believing about ourselves so when i'm afraid of not being pretty enough the lie that i'm believing is melissa you're not beautiful enough you have to change yourself you're not good enough just the way that you look that's the lie that i'm believing and so what we're afraid of controls our life and what we're afraid of that dictates the lies that we believe about ourself and sometimes it's a lie we believe about god so for you write down your fears and then figure out what the lie is that you are believing about yourself because what we're going to do now is you're going to take those lies and now you're going to look to the bible to find what's actually true about you and so for each one of those fears this is what i did i went on to google and i encourage you to do the same and just find scriptures about beauty scriptures about being good enough scriptures about failure and find all of the scriptures that actually tell you the truth about who you are and who you are to god and so now you have a whole list of scripture that is true about you so when you're struggling with those lies and those fears you can come back to the word you can come back to what is true and you can declare it and you can actually fight with the word of god and so the way that i did this was whenever i was struggling with i didn't feel pretty that day or i didn't feel good enough i would go to those scriptures and i would go to god and i would say lord your word says this your word says that and i would just begin to fight even when i didn't believe it for myself but over time what it does is it renews your mind and so maybe like me i made this little packet and full of it is all of the scriptures that i needed to battle and find what was true about me so when i'm struggling with god i don't feel pretty and i always find my identity in that but i know that that's not what you say so god what do you say i would find scriptures like this first samuel 16 7 people look at the outward appearance but the lord looks at the heart oh yeah god this outside shell this doesn't matter what's inside that's what matters to you and when i do that it's renewing my mind then there's another one charm is deceptive and beauty does not last but a woman who fears the lord will be greatly praised and i'm just reminded right lord you don't applaud what just looks beautiful the world applauds what looks beautiful and is successful but you applaud one who fears the lord one who seeks you that's what you call beautiful so this whole process of renewing our minds it's all about redefining what's successful in the eyes of the lord because at the end of the day his opinion it's the only one that matters what the world says and and being conformed to what they want that's going to lead you nowhere so we need to be ones that renew our mind with the word of god so that we can actually live in our identity in him and then the second step as we're renewing our mind as we're replacing the lies about who we are with the truth of who god says that we are the second step is actually allowing god to strip us from those things that we hold on to that define us so for me my first year of salvation god stripped me of everything for a season completely getting off social media i didn't have social media for years it looked like me not having blonde hair for a season it looked like no makeup for a while it looked like not working out for a season and never looking at the scale and all of those types of things were so hard for me i remember the lord even asking me to lay down dating for an entire year because i'd always found my identity in what men thought about me so the thought of not being like pursued by a man not being wanted by a man for an entire year that was scary and i'm gonna be honest all of these things were hard when i laid these things down there were i had good days and i had bad days i had days where i was sitting in my car crying because i didn't feel beautiful i didn't feel wanted but i had to remind myself but god i'm valuable to you i'm beautiful to you and so what are those things that god's asking you to lay down what are those things that you're constantly going to to find your fulfillment to find your satisfaction what is he asking of you and then for a season ask him to help you lay it down because what i found was that when i laid those things down for a season what i gained in him was so much greater it was so much more satisfying it wasn't temporary it was lasting and true freedom is what i found in god and the verse that always came to my mind was one in matthew 16 and it says if you hold on to your life those things the the beauty and the successes and the the riches that the world calls success when you hold on to those things and you try and control your life and hold on to it because it's your identity when you hold on to those things the bible actually says you'll lose it they're temporary it's like chasing after the wind those things don't satisfy those things don't last they change you've gotta you've then gotta change your life to keep up with it if you if you go after those things if you hold on to those things you will lose your life but the bible also says that if you lose those things for his sake if you lay those things down and allow him to strip you for his sake it says you will find life you will find what true life is all about you will find true meaning true joy true freedom and i can testify that that is true it was like the things that i let go from my old life what i found in him was so much greater i was held in bondage before i was i was constantly under the pressure of what everyone else wanted of what everyone else thought and and the lies of the enemy had me in so much fear and bondage but when i laid it aside when i allowed the lord to strip me of those things though it was really hard i found true joy and true life in him and you can too and just know it didn't happen overnight it took a while it took months of me reading these scriptures over myself surrendering different things to the lord he would highlight new things and and i would just have to keep saying yes every day through the tears through the through the pain but i didn't give up and neither did he and when i kept saying yes eventually i began to be able to recognize what is lies and be able to say that is not true god says this about me i am loved i am accepted and i began to walk in strength i began to walk knowing who i am knowing that i'm accepted and loved no matter what if i'm having a good day or a bad day if i look good that day if i don't it doesn't matter it doesn't matter anymore because i'm his and that's all that matters and it's funny a few years later he allowed me to go into some of those things that i laid aside but now it doesn't have a hold over my life i can make my hair blonde today if i want but i don't need it it doesn't have a hold on me like it used to and so for you i just believe that god has that freedom available to you and just know that no matter how long it takes just keep saying yes because the bible says that he who began a good work in you he will carry it out unto completion he's not going to give up on you because he knew what he was getting into when he called you he knew that you had all this brokenness he knew you were a mess he knew that it would take all this work to get you into freedom but he already knew that and he knew that with his help with his word and with your little yes he could get you there so don't give up no matter how hard it is and just keep saying yes so i hope that this video was helpful for you i hope that you have courage today to know that it is possible if you would have seen me in those early days you would have thought i never would have got free and i believed i never would have got free but i kept believing that god was good that he was faithful and that he would get me where he needed me and so as promised i actually made you guys a free downloadable resource that you can fill out all this information it'll ask you what you're finding your identity in what your fears are you have place where you can put scriptures to help you so if you want to get that you can download that at ronnienmel.com identity in christ and i know that sometimes we have actually some deeper issues and so sometimes just doing this isn't quite enough because you have some real deep pain and real deep healing that you need to walk through so if you think that you might need professional help kind of walking through some of these things from your past you can always seek out christian counseling and so we have a resource for you if you just want to go to ronnie and faithfulcounseling.com you can get more information to see if christian counseling might be right for you so if you enjoyed this video make sure to give it a thumbs up and if you think it might help someone you know make sure to share it because you never know the difference that you can make in someone else's life and we want to hear from you so let us know what are some of the things that you struggle with and that you tend to find your identity in and what is god inviting you to do today to find your identity in him let us know down below so again my name is melissa and i'm from ronnie and mail and here on this channel we help you to find god and walk with jesus in your everyday life so if that's something that you need consider subscribing so as always we hope this continues to help you on your journey to find god and walk with him and we will see you next time [Music] you

Channel: Ronnie and Mel

Views: 47,992

Rating: 4.9795179 out of 5

Keywords: Identity in christ, finding your identity in christ, how to find your identity in christ, do you know who you are, identity in god, how to find your identity, christian identity, Priscilla Shirer, finding your identity in god, renewing your mind, how to renew your mind, how to renew your mind in christ, struggling with identity, bible, Melissa Faisst, Ronnie and Mel, christian, how to overcome my past life as a christian, god, christianity, Jesus, Jesus Christ, identity in bible

Id: Q6Q-VjnDMAY

Length: 15min 24sec (924 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 10 2020