Identity Theft Week 2: Monday

Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it. Psalm 139:14

A little-known fact about myself is that I love to sing. I’m no professional, but I took voice lessons for several years and can carry a tune. For a long time, however, I was convinced that I could not sing and mouthed the words to songs when my friends and I were listening to and singing some of our favorite songs. I even sang really, really quietly in church for fear someone would hear me. Why did I think this? Years ago, when I was in the car with my friend, we were singing to the radio, and my friend politely asked me to sing more quietly and turned up the radio. As a result, I thought, “I must be a terrible singer.” I carried this belief with me for years and stopped singing around people because of it. However, one day, this friend told someone we were talking to that I had a great voice. I asked her about it later. I told her that I was under the impression that she thought I had a bad voice and should not sing, reminding her of when she turned up the radio and asked me to sing quietly. When I told her that, she apologetically shared with me that she must have just wanted to listen to the song that day, and it had nothing to do with my voice. I could not believe that one moment had caused me to believe I had a bad voice and caused me to stop singing. This experience taught me a valuable lesson. The way we think about ourselves has a profound impact. In fact, Scripture teaches that our thoughts often drive our actions and how we live.

It does not take long to read through Scripture to understand that we need to truly understand what God says about us and view ourselves the way He does. There is no better place to turn to discover what God thinks about us than Scripture. A favorite place I like to turn to see what God thinks about me is Psalm 139. It’s so beautiful; you need to read it for yourself, but here are just a few things this chapter says about us. We are known fully by God (verse 1). We are God’s creation (verse 13). We are “wonderfully complex” and marvelous (verse 14). God thinks about us very often, and his thoughts toward us are precious (verse 17). These are just some of the incredible things God says about us.

Imagine if we lived believing what God said about us and focusing on what He says about us instead of anyone else. We would find so much freedom. We would not worry so much. We would love each other even more fiercely. Yes, we might even sing worship songs to God more loudly because we do not care what anyone else thinks. So let’s live believing what God thinks about us is true and letting Him and only Him give us our identity.

Moving toward action

As you go throughout your day, pay attention to your thoughts. Whenever you have a positive or negative thought about yourself or your current circumstances, write it down on a notecard or the notes app on your phone. At the end of the day, evaluate the thoughts you have had. Were they mostly positive or negative? How did these thoughts drive how you lived today? Are some of these thoughts recurring? Do you recognize them as thoughts you have just about every day? How might these thoughts have affected you in the past year or years? Make a plan tomorrow to recognize these thoughts. Replace them with positive thoughts and truth from Scripture when negative thoughts come. At the end of the day tomorrow, note how the positive thoughts affected your day.

Going Deeper

Psalm 139:1-24 (NLT)