It’s been such a busy week and up until now I’ve not been able to post more on this series on beauty, but it’s great to be able to draw things to close today with this study I did on our identity in Jesus.
The themes of identity and feeling OK about ourselves have often come up over these past few posts, how it is that defining ourselves by the beauty ideal of our culture does not necessarily equal acceptance and security, or a basic sense of significance as a person. So the idea of this study was to look at the Bible and to see whether it’s possible to experience these things in our relationship with God. To see how He sees us, how He defines us, and how freeing and healing it can be to take on this new identity that we have in Christ.
If anyone is in relationship with Christ, the Bible says, they are a new creation 2 Corinthians 5:17. The Message version says it like this – “now we look inside, and what we see is that anyone united with the Messiah gets a fresh start, is created new. The old life is gone; a new life burgeons! Look at it! All this comes from God.”
It also says we are to “take off” our old self and “put on” our new self, which is being “renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator” Colossians 3:9-10. When we are in relationship with Jesus we are “new” women. That means we are free from the way our culture defines us because our identity now comes from the way God defines us.
If you can, take some time to let the truth of who you are in Christ soak in as defined by God Himself.
You are immeasurably loved with a love that passes understanding Ephesians 3:19
You are the apple of God’s eye Psalm 17:8
God rejoices over you with singing Zephaniah 3:17
You are redeemed and forgiven Colossians 1:14
You are free from condemnation Romans 8:1-2
You are the head and not the tail Deuteronomy 28:13
You are a conqueror because of Christ Romans 8:37
You are a friend of Jesus John 15:15
You belong to God and have been bought with a price 1 Corinthians 6:20
You are accepted Ephesians 1:6
You are assured that all things will work together for your good Romans 8:28
You have not been given a spirit of fear 2 Timothy 1:7
You are a precious child of the Most High God Romans 8:16
You are princess, a daughter of the KING of Kings Romans 8:16 + Rev 19:16
You are a citizen of heaven Philippians 3:20
You are complete in Christ Colossians 2:10
God has a good plan for your life Jeremiah 29:11
You are God’s workmanship Ephesians 2:10
You have been chosen by Jesus John 15:16
God takes delight in you Zephaniah 3:17
You are referred to as “special” 1 Peter 2:9
In Him you are above only, and not beneath Deuteronomy 28:13
You cannot be separated from God’s love Romans 8:35-39
If you have never known this before, you are a deeply loved by God.
At the beginning of this series I also mentioned I would re-post an article giving some men’s perspectives on women, beauty and body image, and also my own story about a struggle with body image and the freedom that I am growing in with God. Instead of re-posting these, I thought I’d provide the links to the original articles as we draw this series to a close. I’d really recommend the article with the men’s perspectives, I found their feedback so affirming and so freeing
. The links to the articles are:
Men’s perspectives – http://birgitwhelan.com/2007/08/17/beauty-part-viii-a-mans-perspective/
My story – http://birgitwhelan.com/2007/08/19/beauty-part-x-my-story/
In the meantime, I hope you’ve enjoyed looking into this topic, and may you know how infinitely precious, beautiful and loved you are in God’s sight.
“Arise, my darling, my beautiful one,
and come with me …” Song of Songs 2:10