As I’ve been reading through the book, Unglued, I’ve been hit from so many different directions. I could easily say, “God is testing me in this area,” or, “The enemy sure is attacking me in this area.” Isn’t it funny how we pick one or the other in our circumstances? What is it that determines whether it’s God testing us or the enemy attacking us?
Honestly, I think it’s just something we Christians say when we really just don’t know what’s going on in our lives.
Does that mean God doesn’t use moments to test us? Absolutely not. God does test our faith at times, but just because something isn’t going our way, it doesn’t mean we’re being tested.
Does that mean the enemy doesn’t attack us? Absolutely not. The enemy does attack us, and sometimes our circumstances reflect those attacks. But just because something isn’t going our way, it doesn’t mean we’re being attacked.
Can it ever be that we are flesh, and we are sinners, and we are facing consequences of our actions that might have taken us off the path God intended?
Can it ever be that someone else, who is flesh and who is a sinner, is facing consequences of their actions, and we are being indirectly affected?
Can it ever be that it truly has absolutely nothing to do with our actions or the actions of someone we love but simply that we live in a fallen world where not everything is always perfect?
Whew. And breathe.
Right now, I’m smack in the middle of so many circumstances trying to force me to come unglued, and today I keep going back to something Lysa said in chapter 7. She talked about her family motto, Remember Who You Are. Today, God has continually placed this phrase in front of me as I have faced circumstance after circumstance after email after phone call after another email after circumstance. Life is playing a game of chicken with me, and life is out to win.
God keeps saying, “Remember who you are, Misty. You are not the unglued woman whose emotions dictate her actions. You are my child, filled with my divine nature and my strength, and with these things, you choose your actions based off of my gentleness, grace, and love.”
Then, he says, “Remember who they are, Misty. They, too, are my children. They may have forgotten who they are, so help them remember. They, too, are filled with my divine nature and my strength. They are to be given grace and love just as you have been given my grace and love.”
In these moments where I feel everyone around me is pounding on my door and my world is caving in, I have a choice to make. I can either lose my ever loving mind, as I have done so many times before, and yell and sulk and cry and slam and cry some more, or I can remember who I am and allow God’s divine and gentle nature to take over my actions.
Who am I?
God says I am created in his image and have been made new. He says that I carry his Holy Spirit inside of me and am able to utilize the supernatural love that comes only from him. According to God, I am not the woman whose emotions dictate her actions, and I can face these circumstance while lifting my hands in praise and thankfulness because I know God is in complete control of the situation. Therefore, I do not have to lose control.
I want to end with a paragraph from chapter 8 of Unglued.
Sometimes I find myself talking about God so much he becomes more of an identity marker than an identity changer in my life. Having God as an identity marker reduces him to nothing more than a label, a lingo, and a lifestyle — I’m a Christian so I talk like one and act like one. But having God as an identity changer is much, much more. It means I am no longer the person I was before, someone who comes unglued at minor things. I am making imperfect progress. Shifting, breaking away, and being chiseled. I am a woman whose identity has been changed by coming face to face with the one who has the power to completely transform me (p.125).
Allow God to be an identity changer in your life rather than an identity marker. It doesn’t change the circumstance, but it can certainly change how you respond in the midst of the circumstance.
Misty Fitch | Fearfully Made 