Receiving and Believing A New Name

Hello Bravehearted Beauties! Happy, glorious weekend to you! I just have to come right out and tell you that my heart is bursting at the seams today! It was 20 degrees on the farm this morning and fall glory is giving way to winter, so not exactly the kind of day you’d expect my heart to rejoice. {Winters have been hard for me.} But after two hard years and a handful of intensely hard months, I’m finally experiencing a significant shift in my story. I’m finally seeing what God sees in me, and I am leaping at the chance to live out of the name He’s called me.

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At the tail end of a recent winter depression, God called me Bravehearted Beauty. I didn’t ask for that name. And I certainly didn’t believe that name described me. Not then. Not in the midst of depression. Not in the midst of intense pain and loneliness in my marriage. Not in the midst of my struggle to understand my story. But God sees what we can’t see, and when He speaks something over you, it’s because He sees who you really are…who He made you to be. He sees your messy, broken, rebellious and unbelieving self, and He loves you exactly as you are right at this very moment. But He also sees you in your full glory. Right now, right here.

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And in that moment, when He speaks something true and glorious over you {as you pray, journal, cry your heart out, listen to a song, read His word or receive a word from a truth teller}, you can do one of two things: believe it, even if it doesn’t feel true…or reject it, because it doesn’t feel true. And as if believing something that doesn’t look or feel true isn’t hard enough, we have an enemy who will try to steal your identity the second it’s revealed to you. {Spiritual identity theft may be the most dangerous and invisible assault we face.} The enemy attacks with all kinds of lies, and will try to use your own story against you. He’ll even stoop so low as to speak hurtful and untrue things through those who are closest to you. And dear one, it’s not your fault that those lies were spoken over you. You didn’t bring it upon yourself. God’s enemy is dead set on stealing your God-given glory, and he’ll use anyone and anything to do it.

Why is your glory such a threat? Because your particular glory makes God’s glory all the more visible in this world. And that, my friends, is our enemy’s worst nightmare! That God’s glory and goodness would be made known in this dark and difficult world infuriates the enemy. He knows he doesn’t stand a chance against the glory of God! {In fact, Satan’s intense jealousy of God’s glory is the very thing that caused him to fall from glory. Can you believe that even Satan was created to give God glory…as an angel, and a highly attractive, beautiful one at that? But in an epic story of good vs. evil, Satan becomes the evil one, and plays that role like no other. But our God is a Mighty Warrior, and even when it looks like we’re losing the battle, He’s winning the war!}

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Dear ones, there’s another thing the enemy hates: being exposed. I feel opposed even at this very moment! {I had such clarity and excitement when I started writing this post, but now feel like the walls are closing in. Brain fog, burry eyes, headache, whispers that these words are too much…be gone!} For years, I balked at the idea of a real enemy. Any talk of spiritual warfare either went over my head or was met with outright denial and resistance. I hid behind high-minded theology, not knowing that a theology that doesn’t acknowledge the existence of an enemy isn’t good theology! It isn’t the whole truth. Lord, help us to see. Our lives don’t make sense if we don’t understand the larger story. If we don’t know who we were created to be and why we struggle to live out of that identity, we lose our way in this world.

{Resources for you: 1. Few tell the larger story better than John Eldredge at Ransomed Heart. 2. If you’d like a brilliantly entertaining and insightful look at the enemy’s tactics, read The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis. 3. For a dramatic visual representation of the battle between good and evil, watch the Lord of The Rings trilogy.}

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Dear friends, I hate that your glory has been assaulted. I hate that the truth of who you are and who you were created to be has been veiled for so long. I’d love to help you recover your true identity. I’d love to help you see yourself as God sees you. Oh, radiant daughter of the King, if I could reach right through this computer screen and place a crown of glory on your head, I’d do it in a heartbeat! But you know what? God has already placed that crown upon your head; I just get to help you know it’s there! And…He calls you by a new name {Isaiah 62 } ; I get to ask God to speak it to you in a personal way.

Maybe He calls you Bravehearted Beauty…or Sunshine…or Buttercup. Maybe He calls you His Favorite…or Princess…or Pearl. It took me a long time to hear my new name. Over the years, I doubted that I’d ever hear. I feared that He didn’t have one for me…that I was too ordinary {or unworthy} to be called anything special. If you find yourself in that place, I ask God to remove whatever is in the way of receiving and believing your new name. I ask Him to speak it…through beauty, through song, through a friend who sees you, through His living Word, through whatever will speak to your heart.

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Confession: when God called me Bravehearted Beauty back in February, He also called me Freedom Fighter. I laughed out loud. Me?!?! Have you seen me? I don’t look like much of a fighter! They called me “Spaghetti Arms” in high school. And “Speedy” as a joke because I’m so slow. Did God pick the wrong girl for these valiant names? For years, I agreed with the lie that I’m no warrior…that I’m more of a damsel in distress, or a dainty princess locked in a high tower. I believed I was unfit for battle…that fighting wasn’t my thing…or even a good thing. But when you’re born into a world at war, you have two choices: rise up and fight or lay down and die. Rise up, Bravehearted Beauties! Let’s fight for our freedom!

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In my full glory as a Bravehearted Beauty and a Freedom Fighter, I sometimes picture myself riding a horse and wielding a sword. Much like Arwen in The Lord of The Rings when she rides across the river and raises her sword against a fierce enemy…not just to save herself, but to save another. {She’s a Bravehearted Beauty for sure!} I may not have an actual sword, but we all have our weapons…ways we fight for truth and freedom, ways we see who we are, and ways we help others see who God made them to be. I’d love to tell you about a few of my swords and hear about yours, but I’m thinking that may be another post. I’ll be back soon!

For now, I want to invite you to receive and believe in a new name. It feels like a treasure waiting to be discovered. I’m excited for you! In the mean time, I’ll call you Bravehearted Beauty. I know that name wasn’t just meant for me!

With so much love,

 

 

 

P.S. A note about the photos: I took them this morning just after sunrise. At first, I thought they were white chicken feathers. {Not a good sign!} But as I stepped outside with my beauty hunting weapon in hand, I discovered that they were feather-like ice formations clinging to the frozen grass and reeds. Beauty hunting never disappoints…even when it’s crazy cold outside!