Here is a thought I have been pondering…

How often do I stay within my typical ways of doing things simply because it is the way others would expect me to be?

How often do I feel an obligation to remain who I am expected, anticipated, or defined by others to be?

Have you ever gotten stuck in a box simply because it has become “your definition”, how you are “defined” by others?  Who they see you as? Who they say you are? How you are “labeled” to be?

I’ve been thinking about this, wondering how many times I do or don’t do certain things simply because “that’s not typically me” or “that’s not something I would do”?

How do we get stuck in these labeled boxes?

I wonder how often we agree with something others say about us –about who we are, or we agree with something the enemy said we are…

There are a lot of labels people have tried placing on me, and typically they don’t mean any harm, but sometimes these kinds of labels can hold us back and keep us bound if we let them, if we make these labels our identity.

What is that thing that I only keep doing because it’s what I’ve “always done”?

What is that thing I don’t feel free to do because it’s not typical for me?

I am realizing that sometimes the Lord will lead us into doing things that are way outside of our typical, way outside of our labeled boxes, and I’ve got to be ready for that, I have to be willing and ready to be obedient. I have to expect that He’s going to burst me right out of those labels. Because who He says I am, and what He asks me to do is what is true.

Somehow when I was young I was labeled as the “girl who never talks” or the “girl who is shy” and somehow I agreed with that and I became that. Now I’m having to face that and work through that. The Lord has been taking me through an “unraveling” process.

The enemy wants us to remain limited. He wants us to believe lies about ourselves that will keep us from being free. He wants to keep us crippled. He wants to shut us down.

If he can just get us to believe that we are worthless, that we are no good, that we are failures, that we are too shy, that we can’t do this, that we’re not smart enough, or that we “have to do this or that” then he knows that he can keep us bound.

One thing the Lord has made clear for me is that He doesn’t want me to be limited by labels or boxes. He needs me to be free so that I can do whatever He asks me to do. He wants to break me free of who “I think I should be”, and “who others think I should be” or “how others define me”.

He wants me to be ready to be whoever, whatever He wants me to be.

My identity is in Christ. I have freedom in Christ. He defines me.

And now I’ve let you in on one of my greatest life challenges…

“It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.” – Galatians 5:1

“We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.” – Romans 6:4

-Heather ?