I Choose Today...

I Choose Today to Believe I Am Chosen and Known

As I continue sharing through my I Choose Today podcast series on identity in Christ, one truth keeps surfacing that feels both tender and deeply needed: we don’t just belong to God — we are chosen and known by Him. After learning to receive identity and lay down striving, a quieter question often rises in our hearts: Do I really belong? Am I actually wanted? Not just forgiven. Not just included. But wanted. Psalm 139 reminds us that God’s knowledge of us is personal, not distant. “You have searched me, Lord, and You know me.” He knows the parts we celebrate, the parts we hide, and the parts still healing, and His knowing is not followed by rejection, but by nearness. We often live as though God is discovering who we are in real time, surprised by our failures and impressed by our good days. But Scripture shows something different. We were fully known before we ever tried to be impressive. Ephesians 1 tells us that God “chose us in Him before the foundation of the world… in love.” Before we prayed a prayer. Before we cleaned up our lives. Before we understood theology. Chosen. Not randomly. Not accidentally. Not

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I Choose Today to Stop Striving for What Christ Already Finished

There was a season in my walk with God when, if you asked me, I would have said, “I trust God. I believe in grace.” And I meant it. But underneath that belief, I was still quietly working. Working to be enough. Working to prove I was serious. Working to earn the feeling of being close to God. It didn’t look like rebellion. It looked like devotion. I was serving. I was learning. I was showing up. But if I’m honest, underneath all of it was fear. Fear that if I slowed down, I would disappoint God. Fear that if I didn’t keep proving myself, I would drift. Fear that closeness with God depended on my consistency. Beneath all of that was one unspoken question: Have I done enough? One day, in a quiet moment, the Holy Spirit gently brought a question to my heart: “Why are you trying to earn what My Son already paid for?” That question stopped me. Because I realized I wasn’t serving from rest. I was serving to try to reach rest. This week on the podcast, I talked about this very thing — the hidden striving many of us carry in our spiritual lives

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I Choose Today to Open the Door to Receive

When I was 15, I worked as a hostess at a restaurant. One day, a customer complimented me, I think it was about my dimples or my smile. Something small, something kind. Without even thinking, I made a negative remark. I brushed it off. I deflected. I minimized it. A waitress pulled me aside afterward and gently, but firmly, taught me how to take a compliment. “When someone says something kind,” she said, “you can just say thank you.” At the time, I felt embarrassed. But looking back now, I see something much deeper. That moment wasn’t just about manners, it was about my ability to receive anything good. I didn’t know how to let kindness land. I didn’t know how to rest in a gift that was freely given. My instinct was to return it, deflect it, or make myself smaller so I didn’t feel exposed. For years, sometimes even now, I’ve had to consciously practice receiving compliments instead of dodging them. That small moment revealed something much bigger about my heart. I didn’t just struggle to receive God’s love, I didn’t even know how to receive a simple compliment. The truth is, many of us say we believe

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I Choose Today to Begin Receiving Who I Am in Christ

As we step into a new year, I’ve been thinking a lot about identity. We live in a culture that constantly tells us we need to figure out who we are, to build it, brand it, defend it, and prove it. We’re encouraged to craft our identity like a sculpture, shaping ourselves into something impressive, acceptable, or admired. If I’m honest, that feels exhausting. Especially if, at some point in your life, you were told, either with words or with silence, that you weren’t really worth much to begin with. Over time, I’ve come to realize something important: identity in Christ isn’t actually hard to understand. What’s hard is receiving it. That’s what I want to sit with here. Not who you should be. Not who you’re trying to become. But how we begin receiving who God already says we are, in Christ. Scripture makes it clear that our identity flows from what Jesus has done, not what we manage to do right. Because of His life, death, and resurrection, we are forgiven, redeemed, reconciled, chosen, and loved. Not because we earned it. Not because we achieved it. Simply because God chose us and made a way for us to

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I Choose Today to Renew My Mind

Transformation doesn’t begin when our circumstances change, it begins when our thinkingdoes. Our lives move in the direction of our most dominant thoughts, which is why Paul’s reminder in Romans 12:2 is so powerful: “Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think.” So often, we focus on changing what we do before changing how we think. But the real work of transformation happens in the mind. That’s where God reshapes how we see ourselves, our situations, and even Him. I’ve learned that the enemy can’t control my life, but he can influence my thoughts, and my thoughts influence everything else. He does what he did in the garden: twist truth just enough to create doubt, shame, or fear. He uses guilt to weigh us down and comparison to keep us small. I’ll never forget walking into a women’s leadership conference filled with about a hundred women. From the moment I stepped in, I felt like an imposter. I wondered how I ended up there, surrounded by so many women who seemed smarter, stronger, and more confident than me. During worship, I bowed my head

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