I AM Changes i am: _____________(for you to discover).

You have to do a little work to figure out what identity statement is yours to reflect on today.  So, get your fingers ready to do the walking, ‘cause you’ll be turning some pages of Scripture (honestly, there’s no prettier sound to me than hearing the pages of the Word turn).  As you look the verses up, write in the blank; this will be your key identity truth on which to focus.

John 3:16

Psalm 13:5
Jeremiah 31:3
Psalm 31: 7, 21
Psalm 32:10
Psalm 33:5

Psalm 36:5-7
Isaiah 54:10
John 15:9
Ephesians 3:17-18
Fill in the blank:  I am _________________!

It’s taken awhile to get to this one.  If I’d been “planning ahead” properly, this should have been #1.  It’s foundational.  Everything about the Christian life is built on this one strong unbending, unfailing truth.  It’s the reason there’s grace.  It’s the reason there’s a heaven.  It’s the motive behind everything else you are.   Paul prayed that his new believers would understand the height, the depth, the width, and the length of this truth.  There’s nothing you can do to earn it.  There’s nothing you can do to change it.  You can’t be loved more.  You will never be loved less…no matter what!

Interestingly enough, it is the very truth that hovered over Jesus as He entered His temptation and battled the enemy, while at His weakest.  It’s the very truth that kept Him sweating drops of blood in the Garden instead of running out of Jerusalem and Judea as fast as He could go.  It’s the very thing that kept Him hanging on the cross.  You are amazingly and undeniably (even though unworthy) loved!  Me, too!

What difference does this fact make in our lives?  Someone else said it well.  If I truly BELIEVE this fact, I can:

Handle praise or rejection.

Deal with my success or failure.

Resist temptation

I don't have to:

 Prove my worth

Make a name for myself

Be right

In other words, I will be what I believe!  I will live loved.