Grace for Living & Grace for Being

There are days that I'm intentionally working out who I am (my identity), and then there are days where I simply rest in the knowledge of it.
His grace is sufficient for both.

During the "shaping" years of my faith, I was surrounded with people who did a lot. They went to a lot of meetings, performed a lot of service, listened to a lot of sermons, and the list goes on and on. They were busy growing in their faith, busy trying to display their faith to the world, and busy trying to prove their love for God. Unfortunately, what I gathered from all of the busyness was insecurity. The thought was always being presented that we were not doing enough. I wasn't doing enough. And, in essence, I wasn't enough.

This is very different from the life of grace. It's quite the opposite of living loved. Rather than finding a place of comfort in my faith, it seemed as though the faith was pushing me to do more. To be more. All of the appeals to come to Christ told me that He loved me for who I was. After accepting Jesus, it seemed like I was presented with a whole other scenario. I'm not saying that this mentality is what people meant for me to live in, I'm just stating the facts about how I felt. It also left me with the question: "If I was enough to be able to come to faith in Him, why am I not enough to walk with Him?"

Think about the favorite hymn of the Billy Graham Crusades. Maybe it was the invitational hymn at your church.
"Just as I am without one plea
But that thy blood was shed for me
And that thou bidst me to come
To thee, O Lamb of God, I come
I come..."
Did this hymn not convey to us the unsearchable riches of His love? Was it not portrayed to us that Jesus would accept us no matter what? Why all of a sudden am I not good enough?
I never really had an answer for those questions. It just seemed to me that I was being led by a lot of insecure people. People who really didn't know their identity. People who were not assured of the Father's love for them.

Change is inevitable. How can one come to faith in Christ and be the same person? I get that. It makes perfect sense. But the fact that we try to take someone through a complete makeover misses the point of His grace in our lives. It seems to me that we do a lot of shaping people into our image rather than allowing them to live out being made in His.

It took me years to discover who I was in Christ. For the longest time I only knew myself as one who was forgiven. I believed I was loved but that didn't take hold in the identity area. Maybe it's because I believed I was loved, but there was still a lot of stuff that God didn't like about me. Ever felt that way? Maybe God will love me more if I did this? Maybe He would love me more if I could stop doing that? What if this type of thinking is actually born out of a religious mindset rather than the heart of God?

My identity in Christ (and yours) is spoken to us in the Scriptures. We can read in the Bible about being the beloved of God, the righteousness of God in Christ, and more than conquerors. We can read about His infinite love for us, His peace that passes all understanding, and His grace that is sufficient. But until we allow these things to shape our identity - WHO WE ARE - then we will never experience them fully.

When I began to live out of my identity (rather than trying to make it happen), life changed. Really changed. I found myself experiencing His unconditional love. I felt the peace that passes all understanding. So much so that it was weird (lol). I finally came to a place in my faith where I realized that I didn't need to strive for His attention or His blessings. I just lived. I remained aware of who I was in Him and let the rest take care of itself. Did you know that was possible?

As I said earlier: There are days that I'm intentionally working out who I am. What that means is that I'm learning how to live out of my identity. Working it out doesn't mean that I am creating the identity. I'm just letting it come to the front. I'm leaving my misguided notions about myself and trusting that He knows me better than I know myself. Then there are days when I just rest in the knowledge of it. In other words, I'm not putting anything into action. I'm just being.

Some of us need to know that His grace is sufficient for both.

Enjoy the journey!!!