What I Am and What I'm Not

"Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things. Those things, which ye have both learned, and received, and heard, and seen in me, do: and the God of peace shall be with you." -Phil. 4:8-9

Aren't "pep talks" great?!  Like when someone encourages you to believe in who you are!  Maybe it was a fellow teammate right before you got up to bat at a championship game who said, "You're a champ already so swing like one!" Maybe it was a friend who told you right before a big nerve-wrecking test, "You are confident - you got this!" (with such conviction that it was contagious and you caught it!)  Maybe it was a family member right before a big interview who said to you, "You are really skilled and you have so much to offer!  Go in there and portrait that!".  Or maybe it was a random person, on an "average" day that said, "You are so encouraging - keep it up!"  Those are just a few little pep talks for example, and I don't know about you, but I just feel so pumped when someone encourages me like that!!  I love being exhorted in the truth of who I am!

It's soooooo easy for me to believe a lie about who I truly am!  It's so easy for me to be caught up in what I feel that I'm "not" and if I "was", well then people would like me better or understand me more etc. etc. etc. Ugh. That's a nasty focus.  Truth that I'm incomparable and that God doesn't look at what I'm "not" and that He is always doing a beautiful work in me - THAT  is the wonderful and rock-solid unchanging focus that I should have!  I love receiving truth encouragement and figured that you do too, so today's post is to encourage you in what you ARE so that you won't be caught up in what you feel you aren't!  These are only a few in a VERY long list that is from God's heart to yours!!!!!!! 

You are loved beyond fathom - beyond any amount of compare!

"You are loved by your Maker not because you try to please Him and succeed, or fail to please Him and apologize, but because He wants to be your Father!" -Max Lucado

"The Lord hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee." (Jeremiah 31:3)

"Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 8:35, 38-39)

"In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins." (1 John 4:9-10)

You are of more worth than you can even know! 

"You weren't an accident.  You weren't mass produced.  You aren't an assembly-line product.  You were deliberatley planned, specifically gifted, and lovingly positioned on the earth by the Master Craftsman!" -Max Lucado

"For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them." (Ephesians 2:10)

"The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; he will save, he will rejoice over thee with joy; he will rest in his love, he will joy over thee with singing." (Zephaniah 3:17)

"What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's." (1 Corinthians 6:19-20)

You have a royal heritage and inheritance that this world can't even begin to comprehend!

"“No one has ever imagined what God has prepared for those who love him” (1 Cor. 2:9).

What a breathtaking verse! Do you see what it says? Heaven is beyond our imagination. We cannot envision it. At our most creative moment, at our deepest thought, at our highest level, we still cannot fathom eternity.

Try this. Imagine a perfect world. ‘Whatever that means to you, imagine it. Does that mean peace? Then envision absolute tranquility. Does a perfect world imply joy? Then create your highest happiness. Will a perfect world have love? If so, ponder a place where love has no bounds. Whatever heaven means to you, imagine it. Get it firmly fixed in your mind. Delight in it. Dream about it. Long for it.

And then smile as the Father reminds you, No one has ever imagined what God has prepared for those who love him." - Max Lucado 

"For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another. But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared, Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost; Which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour; That being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life." (Titus 3:3-7)

"But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light:" (1 Peter 2:9)

"But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ."(Galatians 4:4-7)

You have a purpose, that in God's miraculous design, shapes eternity!!!!

“Just think, you're not here by chance, but by God's choosing you. His hand formed you, He made you the person you are. He compares you to no one else --

you're one of a kind. You lack nothing His grace can't give you.

He has allowed you to be here at this time in history to fulfill His special purpose for this generation.” -Roy Lessin

"But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus." (Ephesians 2:4-7)

"The Lord will perfect that which concerneth me: thy mercy, O Lord, endureth for ever: forsake not the works of thine own hands." (Psalms 138:8)

"Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:" (Philippians 1:6)

You are fully equipped with everything you need to be all that you were created to be!

“When you got saved, God deposited deep down

 within you all of the righteousness that belongs to Jesus Christ. But you can't benefit unless you are willing to dig down deep with the shovel of truth so that God will release a brand-new you surrounded by the secure protection of a breastplate of His righteousness.” -Tony Evans

"Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, Make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is wellpleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen." (Hebrews 13:20-21)

"All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works." (2 Timothy 3:16-17)

"As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him: Rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving. Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power:" (Colossians 2:6-10)

Blessings to you friend!!!!  Remember as Max Lucado said so perfectly, "You are the only you God made.  God made you and broke the mold!"  Live today and every tomorrow embracing and loving Who God truly is and who you truly are to Him and experience life as you were meant to!  Full of blessing, grace, freedom and strength!

~Bri