An Identity in Enough

Today we’re wrapping up this series of posts on “enough.” Check out the first three weeks’ posts here, here and here!

An Identity in Enough

I think this whole idea of “security in enough” really comes down to what creates our identity. In my early 20s I experienced a lot of inner healing and worked a lot on the state of my soul. There were many times where the topic of identity came up and the need to have your identity in Christ.

At the time I felt like this was the cheesiest and most wooden thing that I was exploring. “I am my Beloved’s and He is mine”… what effect did that really have? It felt wooden, not revelatory. I just plain didn’t get it. But over the past several months it’s something that I’ve been pondering again.

I’ve been listening to an Andy Stanley sermon series where he poses this question: “How would you respond if you really believed that God was with you and that He loved you?” In considering this question I’ve realized that the depth of security I have in my own soul is directly rooted in the depths that I know God loves me, and has called me and has purposes for me, which ultimately is the depth of my understanding of my identity in him. I am Beloved’s and He is mine.

Without that revelation of Him giving me content and purpose, of Him fulfilling the desires of my heart, of the Lord being enough – I wouldn’t be secure today. This is so pivotal to my life, because if I wasn’t secure I would make very different choices.

Trading Insecurity for Enough

One of the things that has perplexed me for years is that insecurity is identified as a sin in the Bible. As someone who’s struggled with insecurity for most of my life, this has deeply frustrated me. You can choose not to steal, but how do you choose to not be insecure?

This is probably where most of my own personal victimhood has lain – in not feeling powerful or confident enough to deal with insecurity. It’s a vicious cycle – feeling powerless to break through on insecurity because it’s something you can’t help… because you’re insecure. If you are convinced that insecurity is within the context of who you are, that it’s part of your identity, this is a very dangerous thing. How do you not feel insecure if insecurity is who you are?

There have been many things that have helped me to overcome insecurity, but as I described above, one of the major pieces was a shift in how I understood my identity.  The revelation of His love and purpose has so much more power than the worm of insecurity. Knowing that He’s for me and He loves me, trumps insecurity every time.

In the Bible, Joseph (the dreamer) made some pretty wild choices but he made them out of the context of knowing that the Lord was for him. I look at Joseph’s choices and I ask myself, what are the choices that I would make if I truly felt 100% confident all of the time? What are the choices that you would make? The quality of the choices that you make impacts the quality of your future.

When I respond to a situation with insecurity, I end up making choices out of fear, which always haunt me in the end. Whenever I’ve made choices out of fear I have always regretted them. Always.

The word “enough” has been so challenging for me, but when I’ve made choices out of security, and my knowledge of “enough,” I don’t regret them – even if I end up striking out. Just because you swing the bat doesn’t mean that you’re always going to get a home run.

Babe Ruth was the home run king. He was also the strikeout king. There’s a difference between striking out and not trying to hit at all. I would much rather strike out than not get on base. All the decisions I’ve made where I haven’t tried to get on base – I have regretted. When I base my choices off of having confidence in “enough,” this has truly been a game changer.

What areas in your life are you afraid to strike out, even though you could hit a home run?  How can building confidence that you are enough and letting go of insecurity help you to achieve your goals?

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