Mistaken Identity
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Welcome readers of my Proverbs 31 devotion today called Mistaken Identity. If you haven’t read it yet, catch up with the rest of us by clicking here.
As promised, here is an interview with my good friend and ministry partner at Proverbs 31 Renee Swope on the topic of knowing who {and whose!} we are. And she is offering a generous giveaway too!
Karen: Renee, have you ever suffered from “mistaken identity” spiritually?
Renee: Yes, I lived with a mistaken identity for over 25 years. And sometimes it still happens. Slowly, I’ll slip into a place of believing my identity is based on what I do or what I have or what others think of me.
Renee: I know it’s happening when I start to feel empty. I’ll start doubting my worth or feeling uncertain in my roles or in my purpose as a woman, mom, wife, friend, daughter… you name it. That sense of not being satisfied and feeling lost inside my own thoughts – that is how I know. I’d love to share a short video with your readers today based on something I wrote about in my book, A Confident Heart. In it I share a powerful way I have learned to identify my lost identity, fill my emptiness and let Jesus help me “log out” of the lies and “login” to His promises.
Click the arrow below to watch Renee’s short but very powerful message.
{If you’re reading this via email, click here to return to my blog to watch Renee’s short message and enter to win A Confident Heart Book & Gift Bundle}
Download Renee’s “Message Notes” in a PDF format here or in a MSWord doc here, if you’d like to.
Renee Swope is a national speaker and author of the best-selling book, A Confident Heart,. She co-hosts Proverbs 31 Ministries’ radio show with Lysa TerKeurst and serves part-time as Executive Director of Radio & Social Media. But her favorite titles are wife to J.J and mom to her Joshua (18), Andrew (15) and her 4 yr old Aster, who they adopted from Ethiopia. Connect with Renee on Twitter @reneeswope, www.facebook.com/renee.swope and www.ReneeSwope.com
ENTER TO WIN: Renee is giving away 3 Confident Heart bundles that include a copy of her best-selling book, A Confident Heart, her new DVD series {coming Sept 2013} and her upcoming 60-day devotional {coming Nov 2013} .
Click “comments” below and share your thoughts about Renee’s video message or my devotion, and one thing you can apply to help you live in your true identity as a woman – and as a child of God!
I am new to reading the Proverbs 31 thoughts. But it’s an area I have personally struggled with and now want to help others free themselves from the wrong thinking that we as women tend towards. I hope to read “A Confident Heart” soon, as I have taught and led groups with similar themes and am always looking for new insight! Bless you as you continue this ministry to women!
I love visuals! They make it more unforgettable! We can keep shoving more and more in our jar and never fill it up! God is the only person who can fill us! When we focus on Him and allow Him to fill us, He gives us more than we can think or imagine! We are filled to over flowing! It is so easy to be distracted by the cares of the world and things that are temporary! They ultimately leave us unhappy and empty!
I read this message, and watched the video as I woke up this morning. Thank you. So nice to be reminded about how all the things in the world can’t reach what we truly yearn for like Jesus can!
I read this message, and watched the video as I woke up this morning. Thank you. So nice to be reminded about how all the things in the world can’t reach what we truly yearn for like Jesus can!
I have struggled all my life with seeking earthly things or the approval of people to fill me up. It has been a constant ache in my heart. God took me from a place of financial comfort, married with a nice home and the flexibility to homeschool my two amazing kids, to divorced, struggling, living in a friends kitchen, feeling like I had nothing left. Yet this whole time I kept hearing His voice reminding me that He had a plan for me. I try too hard to control everything, to plan every detail, and to look for everyone to pat me on the back for a job well done. But through the past few years I never felt hopeless. The more I learned to let go of the things that I shouldn’t have been holding on to so tightly, the more I learned to cling to Him. Many days I would hear a song that would bring me to tears and I would cry out and worship Him. Yet even as I am getting back to a place of earthly comfort (I have my own home now, finances are more manageable, etc) I find myself slipping back into my habits of looking to the world to fill me up. My mind knows that God alone can satisfy. But it is a continuing battle to keep my heart focused on Him alone. But He is still working on me. He is putting messages, studies, and His word in my hands at just the right times and helping me build the foundation of truth that will last. This message was part of that. And I’ve been keeping a list of books and studies to get as I’m able to keep deepening my relationship with Him.
Just this morning as I watched the video I marveled at what an amazing and important ministry God has blessed in you women. I’m so amazed at his goodness, you are strong women with huge hearts for God who are standing up and reaching out to women all over our country and our world. Our lives today are so full of pain and our women are hurting and struggling and I’m so blessed that God is using this ministry in such big and much needed ways. Thank you to each of you for opening your hearts and being authentic and bringing a voice of hope to our hurting women.
I really identified with your devotion today, especially the part about the negative comments or chatter that goes on in my mind. I am amazed at how the negative chatter starts to flow and I don’t always realize it! You video spoke volumes to me and gave me a visual as to the emptiness that I have been feeling in my own life. When I saw you place the items in the jar, I suddenly realized that I too have been going to different “things” to try to make me feel included and feel appreciated. Thank you so much for giving me that picture so I can stop going to the “things” and instead going to the One who can fill me up. Thank you also for the reminder that it takes time–I often tend to forget that.
All I can say is, “WOW!!” It’s like Renee crawled inside my mind/heart and wrote exactly what I’ve been living with for most of my life! I’m almost 50 years old and even as a child I was always being compared to someone else by my father, which left me with feelings of inadequecy and just not good enough for anyone or anything. These feelings caused me to be constantly looking for something that would fill my empty heart throughout my entire life. The only problem was, I was looking for it in the approval of others and not going to God who is the only one who can give that kind of love. I’ve lost relationships and gone through some pretty tough hardships through all of it. But there IS a happy ending in my story! I found that unfailing love in my heavenly Father who will never leave me nor forsake me and loves me beyond measure!! Thank you for sharing with us, it’s very encouraging to know that I’m not alone!
Thank you so much Renee and Karen! My day is very blessed with your messages. What a reminder it is to put my focus on the Giver and not on the gifts. Then to “log out” all the lies and to “log in” on His promises. Really like you object lesson Renee… it did hit the spot!
I really enjoyed listening to this video from Renee. The visual imagery that went along with her points really spoke to me and made her message easy tot understand. I need to learn to ask God to fill me with his unfailing love instead of looking to people or things.
Your comment “the identity we seek in others’ approval” plays a far greater role in me than I’ve ever really thought about. I need to change that as there is only one approval I need:)
I have those ‘heart’ issues…I try to remain strong in God but some days I fail so miserably…I doubt myself, I compare myself to people I feel are better than me or more ‘Christ like’ than me…and I fail in my eyes to them every time I do this…and I have leadership roles in my church…I lead a ladies Bible study…I just some days let it get the best of me…but I remind myself as well as the ladies that walked through the Unglued study that we are making imperfect progress…we have to keep moving forward :-) God will walk each step with us…looking forward to reading your book…
I used to fill the void of “mistaken identity” with things that would create an identity (ie, shopping, nice things, etc,) but at the end of the day I felt empty, as Renee said. I then realized all this does not matter and the only thing The Lord wants is my heart. It’s a daily heart issue to work on but I’m happier doing it.
A Confident Heart has been a sweet summer friend, reminding me thoughts are either FM/AM (for me or against me) and we are to change the channel when our thoughts do not line up with the word of God. I’m looking forward to the combo pack to do a small group study with other women.
For year’s I tried to fill the empty places with shopping, doing, achieving only to find myself so miserable and lost. It was only when I began to replace all the “getting” with study of God’s Word, time in fellowship with fellow Christians and to truly believe that God could provide ALL that I needed that I began to have a sense of peace and fulfillment. Thank you Renee! Your book is wonderful and is so true.
Thank you for this wonderful devotion! Was reminded of the verse in John 8:32
You shall know the TRUTH and the TRUTH shall set you free.
Oh how true those words are- I have so, so often tried to use my husband of 22 years to fulfill those deep places that only my Creator and Savior can reach…I need reminded-THANK YOU!!
Love reading your posts and all of the lessons. I find myself lost and trying desperately trying to find my way on many levels these days. All three of my sons are grown now, moved out of the house and have families of there own. Thought we were ready and at a point where my loving husband of 37 years could start the next chapter of our lives. But now we are face with the responsibility of caring for my Mother. At 89 she is an amazing Godly woman who has been such a role model all of my life. In Dec of last year she had to have her leg amputated. Me, I don’t know if I would have had the strength or faith that she has had. She has overcome so much. Makes me wonder everyday if I do enough. I thank you so much for the daily inspiration.
I am reading your book right now – a friend of mine recommended it. It sure does hit home. I am patiently waiting for the devotional to come out in Nov. I would love to win this bundle to be able to pass it around to other woman. So many of us struggle with this. I am a yes person – and feel guilty if I say no. I am also terrible at comparing my self to others and putting myself down. I really thank you so much for writing this book, Renee! It’s a start in the right direction for me.
Wow. I really needed this message today. I have found myself slipping into doubt and hurt because I have not made the time this busy summer for time with the father. Thank you Renee (and Karen) for sharing these amazing truths God has set on your hearts.
Wonderful comparison with FB and mistaken identity. It is so easy to get lost. Thank you for considering me in your giveaway. D
Thank you Karen for your post and for sharing Renee’s video message. I too want to be filled with God’s unfailing love. But I am human and make choices at times that take my focus away from God and instead place it on material things or people. I heard Kristian Stanfill sing “Your Love Never Fails” today as I was driving in my car and it has been a reminder to me all day that God’s love never fails and He never gives up on me.
I struggle with my identity BIG time. The ‘voices’ from others in the past, the lies I tell myself. Idk how to break through and love me for me…to know I am just as important as the importance I place on others. That I deserve love like I love others. It’s hard not to feel guilty when someone is nice to me…or helpful to me. It feels wrong somehow. Idk how to break that stronghold of what I believe in my heart. My head tells me that I am believing lies but the feelings and belief is stronger that I am not worthy of anything good. That if I get something good it’s a fluke. Thank you for letting me share.
Karen,
Thank you for highlighting Renee’s video, I had seen it once before, but apparently HE knew I needed to see it again! I’ve longed for acceptance all my life, having been raised without a father and trying to fill voids through others that just couldn’t. Renee reminds us of that with her visual and it is so very true. I’m at the point of a rock this week, struggling through moments of weakness having lost the ability to have anymore children at 33. Healing from surgery wounds, but wounds of mental weakness. Confident Heart has been pulling on my strings for quite sometime, I should have purchased it when I first heard of it. I just kept fighting it thinking I can do this because of HIM. So I’m putting myself out there in hopes to have a successful chance. :-) Thanks for the posting and thank you for the chance to receive the Confident Heart bundle. God Bless!
Mistaken identity this is something I am quite familiar with, but as time goes on with God I am learning more and more about my true identity in God! I love Confident Heart by Renee and I been trying to get ahold of her book so my mom and I could do this study together. It would be a blessing if I got one of her bundles. God Bless…
I struggle with this all the time, although it doesn’t seem like a struggle because I just simply forget who I am and whose I am. I just go about my life as a mom and try to raise my kids to be Godly while forgetting to raise them to know they are God’s and so am I. I had intended to go through the online book study of “A Confident Heart” and didn’t even get started because I was finishing another book and I can only read one book at a time right now. I still hope to get through and this package would really help me do it. I have a few other women in my community who have the book and we’re hoping to go through it together. I think we would do well to help each other remember that we belong to God and we don’t have to be perfect.