By Linda R. Rubingh
Read: Isaiah 43:1-7
“Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine.” (v. 1)
My friend told me that as a young boy, every day as he left the house for school, his father would say, “Remember who you are!” My friend’s father wanted his son to know that no matter where he went or what he faced that day, he belonged to their family, and he belonged to the Lord.
When we share our personal testimony — the story of how we came to belong to God — we bear witness to this foundational truth: I am a beloved child of the King (v. 4). We remember who we are!
Speaking this truth defeats the most pernicious lie of the enemy — that you’re unloved, all alone, and no one is “on your side.” Satan craftily uses every broken, horrible thing available —disease, accident, abuse, poverty, abandonment — to try and prove his lie. The remedy is found in today’s passage, a reminder of how much God loves his people. We are deeply loved, created for God’s glory, formed to intimately belong (v. 7).
When the enemy tempted Jesus three times in the desert, each temptation was a direct challenge to Jesus’s identity (“If you are the Son of God . . .”; Luke 4:3, 9). The Lord began and ended his earthly ministry in the fullness of his identity: the Son of God, sacrificing his life for our new identity as his beloved.
That’s the best story to tell! “See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God” (1 John 3:1).
As you pray, thank the Lord for calling you his own and giving you a testimony.
—————
Linda R. Rubingh is a parent, pastor, therapist, and writer with a passion for sharing the gospel with youth nationally and internationally. She is the co-founder with her husband, Trevor, of New City Kids, and more recently New City Networks, and is completing her first children’s book, I Love to Tell the Story: Stories of Meeting Jesus from Every Nation, Tribe and Tongue. Linda is a New Jersey native but now lives in Grand Rapids.
Read: Isaiah 43:1-7
“Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine.” (v. 1)
My friend told me that as a young boy, every day as he left the house for school, his father would say, “Remember who you are!” My friend’s father wanted his son to know that no matter where he went or what he faced that day, he belonged to their family, and he belonged to the Lord.
When we share our personal testimony — the story of how we came to belong to God — we bear witness to this foundational truth: I am a beloved child of the King (v. 4). We remember who we are!
Speaking this truth defeats the most pernicious lie of the enemy — that you’re unloved, all alone, and no one is “on your side.” Satan craftily uses every broken, horrible thing available —disease, accident, abuse, poverty, abandonment — to try and prove his lie. The remedy is found in today’s passage, a reminder of how much God loves his people. We are deeply loved, created for God’s glory, formed to intimately belong (v. 7).
When the enemy tempted Jesus three times in the desert, each temptation was a direct challenge to Jesus’s identity (“If you are the Son of God . . .”; Luke 4:3, 9). The Lord began and ended his earthly ministry in the fullness of his identity: the Son of God, sacrificing his life for our new identity as his beloved.
That’s the best story to tell! “See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God” (1 John 3:1).
As you pray, thank the Lord for calling you his own and giving you a testimony.
—————
Linda R. Rubingh is a parent, pastor, therapist, and writer with a passion for sharing the gospel with youth nationally and internationally. She is the co-founder with her husband, Trevor, of New City Kids, and more recently New City Networks, and is completing her first children’s book, I Love to Tell the Story: Stories of Meeting Jesus from Every Nation, Tribe and Tongue. Linda is a New Jersey native but now lives in Grand Rapids.
