“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart…” Jeremiah 1:5 (NIV). Friend, you have a fierce identity in Christ....

On a shivery January day...

a sweet young mom-to-be experienced her first twinges of labor. Excited and frightened all at once, she entered the hospital with great anticipation of what would be–warm snuggles with her new little one and soft scents of everything baby.

This was her first experience giving birth. She hardly knew what to expect and what she experienced was not what she expected.

She labored for days. Her doctor was MIA, all wrapped up in his own personal crisis. He failed to check on her and five days into her hospital stay, her water broke.

That was the day a quiet, sweet mom got fierce.

She could see the outline of her precious baby lying still within her belly, and it frightened her. She demanded to see the doctor. One emergency c-section later, a scared young mama and a baby in distress were recovering after a harrowing experience.

That baby almost died, but she didn’t.

That baby was me.

Although my birth was traumatic, it was not my true beginning.

Our lives had fierce beginnings that started before we were conceived.

So whether you were planned, unplanned, or abandoned by earthly parents, the God of the universe already predestined your existence before you were formed in the secret place, your mother’s womb.

Your Early Years may have impacted your life, but it does not negate the fact that you have a Fierce Identity in Christ

Whether you felt loved or rejected growing up, you have always been loved and accepted because God planned your existence.

You may have been raised in a loving atmosphere or in a dysfunctional environment. You may have had a wonderful childhood or you may have experienced trauma and abuse.

And whatever our early years looked like, we all experienced some type of pain in one way or another.

Pain is hard to explain but it is never wasted…

What you have been through is part of your journey but those events do not define your identity. Before we can walk in our fierce calling we need to know who we are…

We can mistakenly find our identities in the past, in labels people slap on our foreheads, in untruths we tell ourselves, and in the roles we play, but that is not who we are and that is not the reason we are here.

We may be mothers, aunts, sisters, wives, friends…

But what is the most important thing we all are?

We are all God’s daughters–in Christ, we are all children of God.

We are loved and we are chosen.

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.” Ephesians 1:3-6 (NASB)

We were created to know God–to have a relationship with our Creator and for His pleasure. And He knows you and He knows me and we can know Him. We can know Him--not just about Him but really know Him. He is El Roi, the God who sees you.

You May Have Heard this But do You Believe it?

When you feel swallowed up by circumstances and when you feel unloved, unworthy, insignificant, you’re not. You are who God says you are–beloved and worthy through Jesus and His unconditional love and sacrifice.

Do you believe it?

I asked the Lord what He wanted me to tell His girls. As I prayed, I felt deep in my spirit His words which are simple and yet so profound:

Tell them they are loved.

So I will tell you that you are loved by a God who knows you, sees you, and by a God you can know. The one true God.

J. I. Packer put it this way in his book, Knowing God: