By Kara Montanez
Lately the theme of ‘identity theft’ has been coursing through my mind. I have been robbed. You have been robbed. We have been robbed….and it is just plain sad.
In fact, it’s more than sad, it is humanity’s greatest tragedy. That day when that serpent spoke his sweet nothings into Eve’s ear. Those words which made her question who she was, those words which made her think she could be more and that God was holding out on her. If she would just take that bite she would be free, she would know, and she would find out what she was missing.
And then he robbed her. He robbed her of position, he robbed of her relationship, he robbed her of peace, he robbed her of purity, he robbed her of life.
And so it goes today in this world. Countless women robbed of relationship, robbed of peace, robbed of purity, robbed of hope, robbed of life. Broken down women, hurting women, abused women, taken-advantage of women, bitter women, offended women, betrayed women, and abandoned women. Women so far removed in time from the Garden of Eden, that they have no clue to who they really are, or to whom they belong.
Held for ransom by sin. Held in the darkness of death by the thief himself.
Are you this woman? This lost woman? I have been this woman, and have spent many years of my life as this woman, this robbed woman. Then something changed.
I accepted Jesus Christ in my heart and invited Him to be Lord of my life. Then everything has gradually started to make sense. I realized that I had spent years looking for God and I didn’t even know it. Something in me was always searching for something or someone greater than myself to meet the deep aching in my heart. I wanted to feel complete, I wanted to be loved and protected. I always thought that if I could just get married than I would be complete, because then my husband would love me and that would be enough. So I dated, and I dated, and I dated, and I gave too much away in hopes of getting something in return. I pursued love but I was never able to overtake it.
“She shall pursue her lovers but not overtake them, and she shall seek them but shall not find them.” – Hosea 2:7
I never succeeded in my pursuit because I was being pursued by the very One my broken heart was truly searching for. I just couldn’t see Him. I couldn’t recognize Him because I didn’t know Him.
Have you ever wondered why your relationships aren’t working out? Have you ever wondered why whatever or whomever your pursing is always just so elusive? Could it be that you are being pursued by God, but you are too busy running after what you think you want that you don’t even see Him?
I will punish her for all those times when she burned incense to her images of Baal, when she put on her earrings and jewels and went out to look for her lovers but forgot all about me,” says the Lord. -Hosea 2:13
Remember the God who created you. If the love you’re chasing is elusive, then you are looking for it in the wrong places, and it will not prosper. God’s love is never elusive, it can always be found; His love is unfailing.
Do you know that we were created for relationship with God? And that relationship was broken when sin entered the picture.? God could’ve just wiped the slate clean and started over, but He didn’t. We are not worthless to Him. In fact, God places such great value on us that He had a plan already in place to bring us back into relationship with Him. He did this by sending His Son Jesus to die on the cross for our sins.
This is God’s free gift to us. God’s plan for us is restoration. God puts us back together and empowers us to live with clear purpose and destiny.
“If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by openly declaring your faith that you are saved.”
Romans 10:9-10.
I want to encourage you today to reclaim what has been robbed from you. Reclaim your place in God’s Kingdom, reclaim your position, your power, your peace, and your purity.
You don’t have to be that lost woman anymore. You can be that healed woman, that set-free woman, that empowered woman, that loved woman, and that redeemed woman.
Reclaim your identity.