Our Identity

I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. Galatians 2:20

I don't know how you're feeling starting out this year.

Maybe you feel great!

Maybe you feel worn out and alone.

Maybe you're inwardly gazing at the people around you, wondering what they really think of you,

doubting your value and significance.

Regardless of how you feel, what struggles you're facing (and we all have our struggles), I want you to know that you do have value and you are important. Same goes for your neighbour.

It's easy to get caught up in work, relationships, future dreams, and past occurences.

Let me encourage you to forget what lies behind; strive for what's ahead (Philippians 3:13). 

Make it a priority this year to know Christ and to know who you are in Him.

Let Him be the basis for your identity.

I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ  and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings Philippians 3:8-10

When we become so focused on how "successful" what we're doing is, whether life satisfies, or how people we love respond to us, it's easy to get discouraged. Those things easily go wrong. They're important, for sure, but they're too unstable to base and build ourselves on. (I'm speaking from recent experience - it's easy to forget the order of priorities when you marry the man of your dreams!) We need something more solid; someone unchanging in character and in perception of us. Christ. May we know who we are, starting with understanding the heart of God and setting our hearts on Him too. All other things flow from that focus

Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave

the right to become children of God - children born not of natural descent,

nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.  John 1:12-13

That's right: a new bloodline, a new birth, a wholly restored person for all who believe.

YOU are loved and wanted. I am loved and wanted; fully acepted in Christ. Heavenly status, heavenly belonging and heavenly rights (can we even understand what that means?!). That's something to smile about!

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 Ephesians 3:17-19

May you bloom brilliantly as you discover more of yourself this year.

Please pray with me this week for the following:

- WMU wants to start the Kikondo TradeWater business in 2 weeks, which is earlier than previously anticipated. We've hired a jackhammer to help dig through the rock and so speed up the process. Betty Namutebi is our Water Agent; she started training yesterday.

- The protection of where Bryan and I stay; the fence has been tampered with.

- For all of us, what happens in our hearts 2012. 

 

Love, prayers and blessings,

Emily