Content with you

You are who you are. God is Who He is. Knowing that can make all the difference.

I have recently been the recipient of this grand and beautiful revelation. God is so good and patient and gracious. Why He waits for me, puts up with me, and continues to show me His love is beyond my comprehension. He is beyond my human understanding with His greatness. And thank God that He is!

I have been struggling with myself all my life. It is a miserable job. Do you know its drudgery as well? But blessed I am! God has delivered me and freed me from the futility of my thinking, as spoken of in Ephesians 4:17

In recent months, God has shown me I have been seeking to find worth and acceptance in works, or lack thereof. I have seen that much of my life has been devoted to trying to prove myself to myself, to others, and to God.

It is clear to me now. I have devoted time and energy into service that has been performed with the wrong motives. Instead of serving out of love and gratitude for a great God, I’ve been serving out of a self-interest to show myself good and approved. This has been true in all aspects of my life, affecting everything I do.

Even though I know Christ’s work on the cross is the determining factor in my acceptance, I've still traveled the road of endless seeking to do something to make myself feel right. I know my righteousness rests with Christ, yet I have failed to really believe it.

After God showed me the futility of this outward attempt at righteousness - proving myself through works, behavior, and appearances, He went even further. He has graciously and lovingly made me aware of the internal motivations behind my actions. I had never accepted who I am. I have always sought to be something different than who God made me, all because I have always believed I was never good enough.

I have attempted to be someone else. I have tried to be someone other than the person God created me to be, and that dishonors the Creator. Maybe you have always acknowledged this, but this is truly new to me. I see that God made me who I am. I must realize that and accept it. I must see myself as I really am - as nothing more or nothing less.

You’re blessed when you’re content with just who you are - no more, no less. That’s the moment you find yourselves proud owners of everything that can’t be bought. Matthew 5:5 (The Message)

This verse has come to mean so much to me. It shows me that accepting who I am, who God made me, brings deep contentment and sweet satisfaction. I am not to be someone else. The great news is that I don’t have to be. The even better news is that I’m not supposed to be. I cannot please God if I fight against who He made me to be.

I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. Psalm 139:14 (NIV)

These are beautiful words! They are beautiful because God wrote them through David for me, for all of us - to read, to know, to believe.

I have accepted myself. In other words, I have given myself to God. It is not about me at all. It is about God and Who He is, and in turn, who He made me. I have given myself to God. It feels like nothing else in this world. And that is because it is not of this world, it is of God!

This giving into God, yielding to His design of me, has had the affect of a drug. It’s a sedative that doesn’t dull my senses, but rather, heightens them. It numbs the negative, while at the same time intensifies joy at a deep level.

With some sadness, this realization has necessitated that I give up some things I have been doing that “go against” the person God made me. Some of these things are good things, but they are not good for me if they prevent me from accepting the best God has for me.

Giving in to God is liberating and beautiful.

You are who you are. God is Who He is. Knowing that can make all the difference.