Yesterday I shared this idea on my IG:

We can either let the world define who we are, or we can find out who God says we are.  

But in order to find out the later (the one I’m going to encourage you towards) we have to delve into God’s Word.

Which brings about a choice we need to make… and yes, that takes time, effort and desire.

So let me ask you an honest question.  How many books have you bought that either talk about who we should or shouldn’t be, share some sort of insight into finding ourselves or tell us how we can improve ourselves? The “self-help” genre, so to speak. How many times have we listened to a podcast, speaker or even a good ol’ Pinteresty quote tell us our worth?

Yet, if we’d stop for even a second to think about our two choices here, (God or this world), why wouldn’t we want to find ourselves, be defined by or see our worth in God?! The One who is our Creator! Who breathed life, and purpose, and gifts, and absolutely everything else into our form, before we were even born?! (Ephesians 2:10 & Psalm 139)

That sound like an amazing opportunity, because it IS! And it’s the only choice that will truly satisfy.

I know the desire to know ourselves better is a huge movement in our current culture. It's also seeped into our churches, our homes and even into our children’s lives. It’s why self-help books sell millions each year. It’s why the Enneagram has sneaked it’s way into the church, and it’s why we lack confidence in who we are. Let’s take a step back for a minute and ask ourselves why this is so big in our culture right now.

I’m not going to mince words with you here. I believe it’s because the enemy wants us to be self-centered rather than Christ-centered. When our eyes our on ourselves, when we spend our days contemplating our worth or capacity for “self-realization” (humanism) we are not focused on Jesus. Just like satan did in the Garden of Eden, he is luring us towards this idea of “knowledge” being better than a relationship with Jesus Christ. That is scary to realize, but we must open our eyes to this.

So let me remind you what God’s Word tell us. In Ephesians 3:14-21 it says:

”For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of His glorious riches He may strengthen you with power through His Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

Friends, these verses define us as Spirit-filled people who can have the strength, power and love of God filling our lives to the brim! We have this incredible power available to us, when Jesus Christ is rooted and established in our hearts and minds. That is a power that can accomplish far more than we can think or imagine on our own. This is what we as believers in Jesus Christ have access to, and that is exactly what this world (and satan) wants to take away from us.

Ephesians 3 finishes up with this:  “Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.”

So the good news is that God is able and the enemy can never take that away. All glory to God forever and ever!

The not so good news is I’m not sure how much we are living in the strength and power of God these days. Are we humbly coming before God, through Jesus Christ, to seek His will for our lives? Do we acknowledge what He has done, so that we may live in this strength of God’s power? Do we bow our knees before the Father in prayer? Are we giving God the glory and praise for all that He has done in our lives?

Like I said earlier, life is a series of choices and as believers in Jesus Christ, there will always be grace. This is not about our works or a list of “must do’s.” It’s about wanting to do these things; to see the fruit of the Holy Spirit in our lives. So what are some choices we can make in our daily lives to know this love that surpasses knowledge? That we may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God!

Let’s look a few ways to draw closer to the Lord:

1. We need to immerse ourselves in God’s Word. It’s a daily choice to spend time reading the Bible, and to set aside 15- 20 minutes in our day for this. There’s no getting around it. I know this deeply and share how I wasted so many years of my life living a lukewarm “Christian” life in my book. The Bible will absolutely change your heart and mind.

2. We need to have a posture of obedience to God in prayer. When was the last time you kneeled in prayer? I never learned to do this growing up and it took many years for me to see the importance of it as an adult. But I will tell you that it has changed my prayer life.

3. We need to pray earnestly. Charles Spurgeon said it so beautifully: “Prayer pulls the rope below and the great bell rings above in the ears of God. Some scarcely stir the bell, for they pray so languidly. Others give but an occasional pluck at the rope. But he who wins with heaven is the man who grasps the rope boldly and pulls continuously, with all his might.” Let us be people who grasp that rope boldly and continuously!

4. We need to believe and obey. I know there is so much garbage floating out in the world to confuse us. I just watched “American Gospel: Christ Crucified” and I had no idea how much secularism and humanism have invaded our churches. Watch this movie, it’s truly a work of the Holy Spirit and it will be a huge blessing to you. But this gets back to reading God’s Word. We need to KNOW it, in order to believe it and obey it. We need to be like the Bereans, who examined or tested everything they were hearing to see if it held up to God’s Word.

God has a lot to say in His Word. We need to know it and study it so we can boldly proclaim it.

Elizabeth Elliot was an amazing example of a godly woman. Here’s a quote from her on reading the Word of God: “The Word of God I think of as a straight edge, which shows up our own crookedness. We can’t really tell how crooked our thinking is until we line it up with the straight edge of Scripture.” Love that. Now more than ever we need the “straight edge” to guide us, so we don’t fall prey to this world and its deceptive ways.

Let me end by saying this… When we are rooted in God’s Word and established in the love of Christ, (not the love of this world), we will have the power of the Holy Spirit bringing the fullness of life to reside in us! That is more powerful than anything the world has to offer, and that is what we LOVE with everything that is within us on this Love, Tuesday.

Let us see our lives through the lens of God’s Holy Word.

I hope this encourages you today. Please feel free to leave a comment or email me via the CONTACT button at the top of this website.

Hugs to all,

Laura McCollough

It is almost certain that you will not be filled with the power of the Holy Spirit if you are not filled with the Word of God.