In Genesis 11 we are introduced to one of the Bible’s most prominent women, Sarai. As I studied her story, I can’t help but confess how utterly frustrated I was at her introduction.
In chapter 11, we meet Sarai and are told right off the bat that she is barren. Umm, hello? That’s what you’re going to start with??? Sarai is going to be defined by her inability to conceive a child??? That’s hardly fair.
Well, isn’t that the point? Life isn’t fair.
As a matter of fact, if we are honest, so much of our identity as women is placed in what we can or cannot do. Think about it, if you and I were sitting at a coffee shop and I asked you, “So, what identifies you as a woman?” what would you rattle off?
Positions? Titles? Accomplishments?
Most of us would start with our positions. I’m a wife, mother, etc. Then we move our way to titles, I’m a doctor, lawyer, teacher, nurse, etc. and then over to accomplishments…
But what happens when we stop doing those things? What happens when the children leave homes and our task of mothering changes? Does our identity shift? Sadly, for many it does!
What happens when we have a career change? Does our identity shift? Again, it usually throws us into crisis.
When our identity is rooted in our circumstances instead of our Creator we will always have our identity rooted in shaky ground.
This world is quick to label us as women with all sorts of tags…
She’s so…. Beautiful, short, skinny, strong, quiet, outgoing, introverted, selfish, overwhelming, awkward, etc. This list could go on indefinitely.
Satan is quick to label us too…he loves to tag us by our sins and failings. He’ll shout at us all our past mistakes so they stick to our soul. Tags like liar, cheat, adulteress, gossip, insecure, cruel, witchy, and whatever else may have once identified us in our past is not the label we carry once we become children of God.
Satan may spew the sins of our old selves, but they need not stick to our souls.
If the world and Satan aren’t good places to seek our identity, maybe it’s time to seek what God says about who we are!
God is bringing new life into our old beings. He redeems our identity and His power makes us new women.
Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?
Isaiah 43:19
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
2 Corinthians 5:17
Going back to Genesis, Sarai is seen to the world as barren, but to God she was identified as the mother of nations.
In chapter 11 we see everything Sarai can’t do in her own power, but as we keep reading her story, by chapter 17 Sarai is transformed.
Girlfriend, I don’t know what this world has labeled you as. I don’t know what labels you’ve placed on yourself. Maybe you’re focusing on all the things you can’t do, the things you haven’t accomplished, or maybe you are focusing your identity on all that you have done and accomplished. Hear me clearly, the only way we will be settled in our identity as women is if we ground who we are in the words God says about us.
We are His children. (Romans 8:16)
We are new creations. (2 Corinthians 5:17)
We are dearly loved. (1 John 3)
We are made in His image. (Genesis 1:26)
We are citizens of heaven, not this world. (Philippians 3:20)
We are beautiful not for our external beauty which fades, but because of character. (Proverbs 31:30)
We have purpose and a mission. (Mark 16:15)
When we surrender our womanhood, our identity, to the Lord, He shapes us, redefines us from the standards of this world the standards of His Word, and gives us a path of purpose and flourishing.
Girl, don’t let the world give you identifiers that don’t match your identity!
