I have no excuses to offer for being so remiss in posting this month other than that it's been hectic for me both at work where I am dealing with upcoming graduation issues and at home where my husband and I are finishing our basement and spent our entire 3 day weekend and the past two days painting the freshly laid dry wall. I have missed writing and realize that I should have tried harder to make time. I apologize.
A parent of one of my seniors who will be graduating this year has asked me to write something inspirational that she will add to a scrapbook she is making for her daughter. This family is Christian and her daughter and I have discussed issues of faith. I am honored that they are including me in this memory book for her. It is probably the most meaningful task that I have been asked to do outside of my normal duties and perhaps once I have finalized the message I will send to her I will share what I wrote on this site. For now I will say that I have worked with this girl about seeing who she is in Christ and basing her self-esteem on how the Lord sees her rather than on how she sees herself, and I think this is a topic all of us could stand to remember.
I read a devotional a few years ago that I recommended to my student called Who I am in Christ by Neil T. Anderson. In this book, Anderson lists many of the ways that the Bible describes the characteristics that all of us can share once we give our lives to Christ. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is searching for self-definition and self-esteem as I was 11 years ago when I was, like my student, on the verge of adulthood but still feeling like a child and trying to figure out who I am and where I fit into the grander plan.
One of my favorite verses in the Bible that describes who we are in Christ is Romans 8:37, "In all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us." Merriam-Webster defines the word conquer using some of the following phrases: "to gain mastery over," "win by overcoming obstacles or opposition," and "to overcome by mental or moral power." These are all very significant phrases when considered in light of our Christian walks
We have a very real enemy who tries to work against God by working against us on our walks. Just as Romans 8:31-39 describes, our enemy whispers words of condemnation in our ears and tries to veer us off-course during our hardships. He lies to us about who God is and he lies to us about who we are as God's children. But Romans 8 is clear, we have the power to conquer--to gain mastery rather than to be mastered by--our enemy. Through Christ we can overcome every obstacle and opposition the enemy tries to throw at our feet. By staying focused on the Lord, we can keep ourselves from being distracted by the enemy's ploys and we can find victory (1 Corinthians 15:57, 1 John 5:4).
Christ won our victory for us on the cross and we are called to walk in that victory rather than in bondage to our enemy (see Romans 6). In practice, this means daily putting on our spiritual armor (Ephesians 6:10-18) to walk out onto the battlefield. For even though we already have victory, we still need to fight. Because the battle often begins in our minds where we give the enemy's lies ground to land on, we must "overcome by mental power" by taking every thought captive to Christ (2 Corinthians 10:5). We must stand firm in our faith and in the truth giving ourselves to the Lord's work even when our enemy tries to block our efforts (1 Corinthians 15:58). The enemy has waged war on us, but through Christ we daily conquer our enemy.
Posted by Kim at May 31, 2007 08:52 AM