Recently my wife, oldest daughter, and I went to an evening big-band dance in downtown Nashville. To celebrate the occasion, we took a selfie to post on Facebook. As I scanned the post to proofread it, I noticed that the app had automatically tagged my wife and my daughter in the photograph. It also tagged me... but, as someone else!
My initial response was to laugh at the thought of being mistaken for this person. Why? Because the gentleman I was identified as is someone whom I greatly esteem as a man of wisdom, love, and kindness. I immediately texted him writing, "I had a good chuckle tonight. Took a photo with my family and Facebook tagged me as YOU!! I laughed at first and then was blessed at the thought that I would have any attributes that would be mistaken as you! Praying I would be a man of integrity, grace, and truth as you consistently demonstrate! Blessings, brother!"
As I reflected on being erroneously identified, I began to ponder what "tags" would accurately identify me. Having been a less-than-stellar-day in my faith journey, the enemy quickly chimed in with a deluge of demonic verbosity. Drowning in the verbiage, God rescued me with a lifeline of Truth. "Son, that is not who you are." With a warm, loving, parental tone, He reminded me of what He prophetically spoke through the author, Graham Cooke. "Son, when I look at you, I see nothing wrong with you. All that was wrong with you, I put on the cross and crucified it with Jesus. When I look at you, I see what's missing. And, in the sufficiency of Who I am, I am deeply committed to providing those very things in your relationship with Me. You are complete in Me and you are being made complete in Me." He paused, I believe, to allow those words to sink in, and then continued with words that left me undone. "The attributes you see in your friend, I see in you. And, I am relentlessly committed to cultivating them in you because that is My nature." [See Galatians 2:20, Romans 6:6-8, Colossians 2:10, and 2 Peter 1:3-4].
While the analogy is weak and cheesy at best, there is truth to be gleaned. Just as Facebook "tagged" me, I believe God sees more in you than you currently see in yourself. Simply put, precious one, you are more than you know!
God's nature is present in you in the Person of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Jesus. Imagine, then, the joy that it brings to the Father to invest in your life, nurturing and cultivating that nature so that Christ would be fully formed in you. [See Galatians 4:19]. Beloved, that is grace: God's empowering presence that enables you to become everything He sees when He looks at you!
Perhaps your "selfie" has been "tagged" by the enemy and every time you look at yourself all you see are labels of inadequacy, incompetence, and inferiority. Know this, amazing one. That is not who you are. Hear the astoundingly good news! "God has now made [you] to share in the very life of Christ! He has forgiven you all your sins: Christ has utterly wiped out the damning evidence of broken laws and commandments which always hung over our heads and has completely annulled it by nailing it over his own head on the cross. And then having drawn the sting of all the powers ranged against us, he exposed them, shattered, empty and defeated, in his final glorious triumphant act!" [Colossians 2:13-15 Phillips]. Lift up your head, child. "You are the ones chosen by God, chosen for the high calling of priestly work, chosen to be a holy people, God’s instruments to do his work and speak out for him, to tell others of the night-and-day difference he made for you - from nothing to something, from rejected to accepted" [1 Peter 2:9-10 MSG]. That is who you are!
Today, take a moment and exhale. Sink deep into the arms of God's grace. Rest in His empowering presence that is enabling you to become everything He sees when He looks at you! "...I’m fully convinced that the One who began this glorious work in you will faithfully continue the process of maturing you and will put his finishing touches to it until the unveiling of our Lord Jesus Christ!" [Philippians 1:6 TPT]. And, by the way, God is not the only One who is excited about this journey of transformation in your life. "The entire universe is standing on tiptoe, yearning to see the unveiling of God’s glorious sons and daughters!" [Romans 8:19 TPT]. You, my friend, are more than you know.
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