Years ago, my mother stopped me after I had referred to the ole monster of an eating disorder I suffered with as “MY eating disorder.”

She looked concerned.  “Christa, when are you going to stop holding on to the pain?  You're never going to get free if you keep claiming it's who you are.”

Isn't it interesting how we long to be free from our cages, but cling to them with white knuckles?  We wear our past like cloaks–as old, familiar friends that we hate but don't know how to separate from our identity.  The problem with that approach to life is that we live from our identity.  We live out of the foundation of who we believe we are.

So if our identity is in our addiction, we're still going to run to substances.

If our identity is in our fear, then fear will always be lurking in the wings.

If our identity is in our anger, then we'll see red when someone wrongs us.

If our identity is in our insecurity, we'll act that way.

If our identity is in our abuse, then we'll live as a victim.

So wouldn't it be important to as ourselves, “What/Who do I identify myself with?”

This is why Jesus is so much fun.  He's the greatest identity thief in the universe.  He says, “Hey guys, I'm going to do you a favor.  You actually can't fix yourself.  You're a mess.  So I'm going to die for you, be raised up for you, overcome every negative thing you've ever identified yourself with.  Then, when you let me live inside of you, I take all the negatives upon myself and REPLACE them with ME!  Now, you don't have an anger issue.  I crucified it.  You get to have MY kindness and patience!  You don't have an addictive personality anymore.  I killed it.  You have MY self-control!  You don't have any insecurity anymore. I smashed it.  You have MY confidence, rest and trust!  And I empower you with the same resurrection power that raised me from the dead!”

Sounds like a good trade off, doesn't it?

This is why I love the Bible.  It's not a big, fat book of rules and regulations.  It's a book of identity that tells me who God is, and in finding out who He is, I get to find out who I am.

I don't identify myself with my past failures anymore.  Why?  Because they're dead.  Galatians 2:20 says “I have been crucified with Christ and no longer live, but Christ lives in me.”  I identify myself with what HE has done.  The more I focus on His victory, the more my life looks victorious.  The more I focus on His promises, the more promises bloom.

So now when I refer to the nasty monster that plagued years of my life, I just refer to it as ‘the eating disorder.'

It's not who I am anymore.  It's not mine.

It was crucified.

YOUR TURN:

 Are you identifying yourself with something that's been crucified? 

Stop and take a moment.  If you're identifying yourself with your past, with your abuse, fear, failures, addiction, depression, insecurity, poverty….it might be time to change your language.

Pray this with me out loud:

“Father, I give you back what you crucified.  I give you my identity in _____________.  I choose to identify myself with what YOU have done, even as it's coming to fruition in my life.  I will focus and declare the TRUTH that I am _______________.”