Copyright by Shea Oakley
\nAll rights reserved<\/p>\n
Entering into the identity given us by God often requires that we receive His knowledge of our true selves through others. In and of ourselves we are not able to see who God made us to be in Christ. We need the perspective of Godly individuals who He has placed in our lives for this purpose. To a sense those who love us with the love of Jesus are His vessels for bestowing our identities upon us.<\/p>\n
Sometimes, maybe most times, the \u201cShea\u201d perceived by those who both love God and love me is the \u201cShea\u201d I should see myself as. Like many of us I often tend to be excessively negative in my self-perception. Left to my own devices I sometimes have a propensity to paint myself as a spiritual failure. The tapes that play in my head reinforce this tendency and those tapes all pre-date my conversion to Christ. As a boy I knew the sting of rejection and emotional abuse by both my peers my earthly father. Despite my conscious rebellion against the messages these individuals sent I know I internalized much of what they said about me during the formative years of my life. To this day these messages affect my perception of myself and also, unfortunately, my perception of how my Creator sees me. They sank deep into my heart at a time in my life, childhood and adolescence, when I was very impressionable and when I was looking to others for validation.<\/p>\n
Today I believe God has put new people in my life whose purpose in being there is to tell me the truth about who I am, both as a creature made in God\u2019s image and as a being redeemed by the blood of His Son. When these brothers and sisters in the faith praise aspects of my character or encourage me to grow as a child of God they literally help to re-make me into the person God designed me to be. To the extent that I receive this loving praise and encouragement I begin to become the person they are describing.<\/p>\n
We often underestimate the ability of another person\u2019s words to affect our lives, either for good or ill. But such words have great influence. This influence is amplified when the person saying them is someone who we care about and whose opinion we value. The nature of this phenomenon is a mystery but perhaps it derives from the significance of the spoken word in God\u2019s economy. We are told that the universe and all it contains was brought into existence by the word of God. He literally spoke it into being. Isn\u2019t it logical that his finest creation might echo that ability, albeit on a radically smaller scale?<\/p>\n
In the New Testament book that bears his name the apostle James tells us of the capacity of the tongue to both build up and tear down. He makes it clear that words can have a great deal of power and must be used carefully by those who claim the name of Christ. Again this implies that a person\u2019s very life may be changed by the words he hears from others.<\/p>\n
Some might interject here that only the words of the Bible, mediated directly by the Holy Spirit, are meant to have such power in a Christian\u2019s life. It is certainly true that God directly uses our reading of scripture to mold us in this way. But God also uses earthly inter-personal relationships to accomplish His will and if His word is written on our hearts why wouldn\u2019t He also use the truth he has put in us through that word to help each other to become what he wants us to become?<\/p>\n
All this points up the awesome responsibility each of us has to bless others. We can bless with our words or we can curse. We can help someone find their identity in Christ or we can hinder them. It is up to us to choose our words carefully, with a loving desire to help one another be all God intends us to be.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Copyright by Shea Oakley All rights reserved Entering into the identity given us by God often requires that we receive His knowledge of our true selves through others. In and of ourselves we are not able to see who God made us to be in Christ. We need the perspective of Godly individuals who He… <\/p>\n