The Identity Movement: Anna Jo’s Story

A few years ago, a broken relationship left my heart in pieces. It was a hard break up and it left me feeling like I wasn’t quite enough. Although we remained friends, our relationship always had me feeling that same hindering feeling of not being enough.

Other circumstances in my life fed into this feeling. I would subconsciously connect my identity with the place I lived, the job I worked, the amount of followers (or lack thereof) I had on social media, the church I went to, or my “goody two shoes” reputation. And whenever the circumstance changed, so did my identity.

It was like a heavy weight that I couldn’t get rid of. This feeling left me with nothing to do other than attempt to try everything I could to prove that I was indeed enough… But let me tell you, it was and is a never-ending battle.

It’s funny how Satan likes to attack at your most vulnerable and fragile moments. He gets you right in the heart where you are the most tender. And like the vicious enemy that he is, he uses things like failed relationships and circumstances to tear you down and make you feel less-than, broken, and unworthy. He puts just enough truth in his lies to make them believable, and it works.

Satan would whisper little things to me like:

“Your ex didn’t want you so why would anyone else?”

“You don’t have near enough likes or followers to make an impact for the Kingdom.”

“You couldn’t make that relationship work, so obviously there’s something wrong with you.”

“Oh look, you messed up, you’re a failure.”

“You must just not be skinny enough, pretty enough, or put-together enough.”

“You’re the problem.”

“You’re just not enough.”

Satan had me going for a long time, and still to this day, I often feel inadequate and simply not enough. He takes our circumstances and our already existent identity struggles and he sneakily and unnoticeably blows them up little by little. He does this in a way where you don’t even realize what happened until it’s over.

Maybe you’ve been there? Maybe your identity struggle isn’t rooted in a failed relationship, but maybe it’s the byproduct of an abusive relationship, a neglected upbringing, bullying, eating disorders, medical issues, comparison, social media, your current circumstance, or the color of your skin. Whatever the case may be, we all have an identity issue in some way. We hear the lies Satan tries to tell us, we start believing them, the world might even agree with what Satan says about you, and then it just gets worse from there.

It’s a daily battle. And that’s exactly what it is, a war. It’s a war over our identities and our souls.

Satan is on one end, using every weapon he can against our souls, attacking at every low moment we have, and using the world to try to set in stone what he says about us…

BUT GOD….

Being rich in mercy, He calls us back to Him and tells us what we really and truly are. You see, it is a battle, but, sweet sister, the battle is already won. Jesus victoriously won the battle when He took our place on that rugged cross and traded our filthy rags for His glorious robe of righteousness.

 

“I will sing for joy in God,

   explode in praise from deep in my soul!

He dressed me up in a suit of salvation,

   he outfitted me in a robe of righteousness.”

Isaiah 61:10

 

Someone once explained it to me this way… “Picture your life as a book. Your whole life story is written on the pages and it is filled with your sin and the lies you have bought into. The book is ripped, torn, and battered. When you surrender your life to Jesus, He takes that book and puts a new cover on it. The cover is beautiful and it has your name on it, along with your new identity as being a child of God. He replaces your pages with the pages of His life. He writes in the lines that you are loved, valuable, and righteous because of what He has done. This means that when God looks at you, He sees Jesus.” This also means that your old identity of being not enough, less-than, unworthy, or whatever it may be is replaced with Jesus’ enough-ness, worthiness, and righteousness.

He took all of our “not enoughs”, our “unworthies”, our “hopelesses”, our “unloveds”, and all of our other identity issues and He traded them. So now, we no longer live under the identity of “not enough”, but we live as “enough”, because Jesus, laid down His life so that we might have life and have it abundantly. (Eph. 3:20-21)

He trades my not enough-ness for His sufficiencies. (1 Cor. 12:9)

He trades your unworthiness for His worth. (Luke 12:7)

He trades your brokenness for His restoration. (Col. 3:10)

He trades your hopelessness for His hopefulness. (Psalm 42:5)

He trades your bondage for His freedom. (Romans 6:18)

Because in Jesus we are restored, redeemed, whole, loved, wanted, set apart, cherished, beautiful, chosen, and made new. Let’s celebrate that today!

Here’s how you can celebrate with me today:

I’m calling women of ALL ages, ALL backgrounds, and ALL races to join this movement, The Identity Movement.

I want YOU to send in your identity story. Tell us about who you are, what your identity used to be (what Satan and the world told you you were), and then tell us what Jesus says you are. We want this to be a movement that not only sheds light on the identity crisis we as women face everyday, but above all else, we want this movement to be for Jesus and His glory! So let’s celebrate all that Jesus has done! Send in your story to discoveringhersoulpurpose@gmail.com and your story might end up being told on the blog! Please send in a picture of yourself with your hand out in front with whatever your identity used to be written on it (example below).

I can’t wait to see what God does through this movement. It’s all for Him and all for His glory.

With love,

Anna Jo.