““For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God?  If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ.”  Galatians 1:10

Encounters with God change a person forever.  We’re never the same again after being near Him, being loved, and hearing His voice.  He speaks, and it goes right through us to the deepest possible place.  And as wonderful as all of this is, it’s costly.  Because after deep inner work with God, I won’t want to return to my old ways of relating to people.

In sanctification, God speaks to what is broken.  In His presence, everything is turned upside down.  If I learned to survive by blending in, by becoming acceptable, when God heals me, He may ask me to lay down that old survival strategy. Sometimes it’s the part of us that was ridiculed, silenced, or misunderstood that becomes the place where God’s voice begs to speak with power.  We discover all the places we’ve been hiding because others didn’t like that ‘side’ of us.  We were called to be authentic.  And authenticity is not self-expression for its own sake.  It is obedience to who God says I am.

This feels costly, especially with people who have known me for years. Will I remain loyal to my old image or obedient to God’s design?  Will I let other people’s memory of me become my identity?  The Spirit of God wants to fan into flame what fear taught me to mute.  

Lord, give me the courage to be who You created. Not a lesser version.  Whatever you made is ‘good’.   Amen