Surviving Me

Posted on Nov 20, 2017 in Prayer Requests |

Loving Who We Are

By Pattie Chenger-Hagerty on November 20th, 2017

Too many people think they know who they are based on their hobbies, efforts, connections, or report with others. They struggle to survive with their misguided or disillusioned image that they or the world has given them, never quite reaching the right standards or fulfilling the determined expectations. But the truth is, God made man in His likeness. Male and female He created them to reflect His image, an image of goodness, hope, and love. Check out Pattie Chenger-Hagerty’s story below, and be encouraged to love who God has created you to be.

I love who I am! That sounds like such an obvious statement…or does it? How many people today in the world can truly say, “I love who I am!” ? It didn’t use to be the way I felt about myself. In fact, it was probably the furthest thing from the truth. It would take too long to share my entire testimony, so let me just say God changed my whole world and I would like to share part of what I have learned in order that it might help someone else.

The first thing I had to learn was to recognize what I was battling. I, “miss independent have it all together”, was actually longing for help, my spirit was crying out for it, but pride, false strength, fear of being judged, fear of failure, fear of admitting I couldn’t handle it all on my own, kept me from reaching out. All of those attributes are tactics of our enemy to isolate us and keep us from God and the body of Christ. Thank goodness God keeps chasing us down.

In fact, God decided to trap me in a church to get a message to me. We were trying out a new church and my youngest son was in their temporary nursery, you had to walk past the whole congregation to access it, thus the trap. When the praise and worship started I would have been out of there in a split second if I could have snuck out and got my baby. Instead, all I could do was stand and pretend I was not in utter shock with my other two kids looking at me with their mouths wide open. We had never experienced anything along the Pentecostal/charismatic lines before, in fact I had never even heard those terms before. Rock music, flags, dancing etc. were not part of our religious experience. However, when the music was over and the minister began to preach it was as if he was speaking directly to me, piercing my heart. I decided to give it another try the next week, and week after week I heard a man of God speak things I have never heard a man say, it was as if he were speaking directly to me with no one else around. I am so glad God orchestrated that trap allowing me to get past fear and offense to receive His message for me, it was the beginning of a brand new life.

The next thing I had to learn was who I am in Christ, not what the world says I am. So who am I? Who are you? If we both believe on Jesus as our Savior, the answer is the same for both questions. We are the children of God, adopted into His family by Jesus Christ. We are heirs of God, accepted by Him, redeemed by the blood of Christ, all our sins being forgiven. We are brothers and sisters with Christ able to do God’s will. The following scriptures are just a sample of many scriptures telling us who we are:

Romans 8:14-17 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. 15 For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. 16 The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: 17 And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.

Ephesians 1:3-7 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: 4 According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: 5 Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, 6 To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved. 7 In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace;

Matthew 12:50 For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother.

This process of becoming a son or daughter of Christ, being “born again” into this new family, is a miracle in and of itself. But I couldn’t just know the words I had to actually choose to believe them, walk in them and tell everything else that contradicted this truth to get behind me.

This choice, this will of mine, was the next thing I had to learn about. I had to learn to use my words and actions, with the help of God, to walk in my new identity. This was and at times continues to be a challenge. I didn’t realize how many contradictory thoughts to my God given identity hit me everyday. I made a conscience effort to verbally strike down every thought not from God. I simply said “no” out loud to everything that was not in line with my new identity. I challenge you to try it sometime, even just for one day. I said “no” a lot! But over time I noticed I had to say “no” a lot less and the blessings of God were just pouring into my life in every possible small way and even in some amazingly big ways.

So my hope for everyone who reads this is; one that you learn what you are battling that is keeping you from God, His body and His blessings, two that you learn your true identity and walk as my sister and brother, and three that you exercise your free will and choose to begin the process of aligning your thoughts, words and actions with that of our brother Jesus Christ.

With Hope,

Pattie Chenger-Hagerty