Motivation Monday - Reclaim Your Identity as Beloved

“God is love. When we take up permanent residence in a life of love, we live in God and God lives in us. This way, love has the run of the house, becomes at home and mature in us.”

I John 4:17 (MSG)

A few days ago, I was taking my daily walk listening to worship music. I was unaware that while I was listening to the music, I was also fretting about so many expectations weighing on me. If I was honest, the expectations were largely of my own creation. And I was falling short.

The fretting was raising a sound barrier that blocked out what should have been a time of praise and gratitude.

I kept walking, listening and fretting. Until I stopped. Sarah Kroger’s stunning song, “Beloved” began to play and caused me to stand unmoving.

Here are the words:

BELOVEDNESS

words and music by Sarah Kroger

You've owned your fear and all your self-loathing

You've owned the voices inside of your head

You've owned the shame and reproach of your failure

It's time to own your belovedness

You've owned your past and how it's defined you

You've owned everything everybody else says

It's time to hear what your father has spoken

It's time to own your belovedness

He says, "You're mine, I smiled when I made you

I find you beautiful in every way

My love for you is fierce and unending

I'll come to find you, whatever it takes

My beloved”

Perhaps as you read these words right now, the veracity of the truth they carry is finding its way into your heart and literally making you breathless.

In an instant, I exhaled and then began to weep with relief. I was heavy with the failure of not living up to the identity I had created that involved over-pleasing, over- producing and living up to the promises I had made to myself and others.

In that moment, God shifted my core identity from a failure to beloved.

And He can do the same for you.

Henri Nouwen, in his beautiful work, Life of the Beloved, reminds us of this truth:

“Every time you listen with great attentiveness to the voice that calls you the Beloved, you will discover within yourself a desire to hear that voice longer and more deeply. It is like discovering a well in the desert. Once you have touched wet ground, you want to dig deeper.”

Would you like to reclaim your identity as God’s beloved? I pray this week that you would listen attentively to the Voice that calls you Beloved. I pray you would stay longer and dig deeper into that well out of which God’s life and love flows. Let love find its home in your heart.

I believe in you.  God bless.

Cathie