April SNOW Showers in Colorado Bring May ???
(I snapped these pictures earlier this month, really.)

A few weeks back, I was sitting in my special morning chair, coffee in hand watching the white flurries bend the branches of the beautiful evergreens. And I was reminded …

“For at the rain and snow come down from heaven
and do not return there but water the earth,
making it bring forth and sprout,
giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,
so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth;
it shall not return to me empty,
but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,
and succeed in the thing for which I sent it.”
Isaiah 55:10, 11

It was 10 years ago. I was alone sitting on the bed in the hotel room. (I’m not sure where Julia was, my roommate for the weekend.) With my Bible open to Philippians and my journal near by,  I sat conversing with God.

Six months earlier while reading Philippians, I noted in the first chapter, Paul, sitting in prison says, “If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me.” (v. 22) God’s voice through the apostle Paul broke through. I prayed God, can I claim this truth for me as well? That as long as I’m alive, no matter what my circumstances, I will experience fruitfulness?

That morning in the hotel, I remembered my prayer from six months earlier. God answered, yes with a caveat. If I go on living out who God created me to be, it will mean fruitful labor for me. I rested. God’s caveat affirming my desire–to live out the identity He gave me as His child.

But there’s more.

Not only did God speak to the desire of my heart that morning, but with His caveat, He also highlighted a lie I had been vulnerable to, I need a role or a title for significance in the kingdom. NO!

Significance rests in my living out my new identity. I don’t need a seminary degree, a spiritual director certificate, or even be leading a bible study.

I need to be the me God created me to be.

That morning I added Philippians 1:22 to the page in my journal that records the scriptures I often pray for myself in my quiet times. ‘Cause I need to be reminded.

What scriptures speak the truth of your identity to you?
What helps you to remember that truth?
What difference has it made in your everyday living?