Reclaiming What’s Been Lost: Finding Your Identity in Faith (audio only)

 ever felt like you’ve lost yourself - who you are, what you’re called to do, or the confidence to walk boldly in your purpose? God never intended for you to live in confusion about your identity.

In this episode of Purposely Restored, we’re talking about how to reclaim what has been lost and rediscover your identity in Christ. How to remain grounded in our Identity in Christ - Walking boldly in EVERY SEASON! You were created with purpose, authority, and divine intention- it’s time to walk in it.

Transcript

Ju’Jaraw: 0:00

Hey, listeners. You are now tuned in to another episode of Purposely Restored. I'm your host, Jujara Singleton, a Christian mindset and growth coach, licensed clinical social worker, and transformational speaker. In this corner of the podcast world, we're about faith healing and transformation. We focus on renewing our minds, breaking free from strongholds, and stepping into the life God has called us to. Your identity is already secured in Christ, and your purpose flows from who God created you to be. So let's be restored and renewed as we walk boldly in faith through Christ Jesus together. Are you ready? Then let's dive in to the next episode. Hey, family. Welcome back to a new season and the first episode of Purposely Restored. I know y'all are probably looking at me like you said you was leaving therapy, but did you leave the podcast? I didn't leave the podcast, y'all. I didn't leave the podcast. But what we're going to be talking about today actually coincides with why I took a little break from podcasting and creating content. And the topic we're going to be covering today is reclaiming what's been lost, finding your identity in faith. So if you're new here, I welcome you to come on in and grab your holy drink, get in your comfortable position, grab your notebook. Okay. Whether that's your tea, your coffee, whatever you like to sip on, whatever you like to munch on and get comfortable. If you are driving and listening or working and listening, that's okay, too. We do that in fellowship. So make sure that you go ahead and tap in because we're about to be talking about some good, good stuff. And if you are new here, I just want to introduce myself. My name is Jara Singleton. I am a licensed clinical social worker turned therapeutic mindset coach. Okay. And we are faith based over here. And I'm also your friend, and I just want to invite you on this journey of being purposely restored. And that is what this is all about. A journey of restoration and purpose with Jesus Christ. So let's get into our episode today where we really talk about what many of us struggle with, right? And that is faith and identity. Right? And being able to figure those things out is connected to us being able to go into our purpose. And so, you know, when we're thinking about navigating new seasons. Okay, let's talk about it. Haven't you ever experienced just feeling lost? I know. As I wrapped up my internship and finally got to the finish line, I found myself depleted, y'all. Like, I could not. I could not catch my Breath. I just didn't have any energy. I was just kind of like, in this blah space, and I really didn't understand it. I was like, okay, I'm done. Why do I feel like this? Why do I feel like I don't know what's next? Why do I feel like I don't have the energy to hop on here, record and just do the things? I have more time. I should be. I should be able to do it. And I realized how much of my energy, how much of my dedication, how much was stolen from me during that season. And I really had to spend time with God and in his face and really bringing these things before him and exploring what had been lost that really is required for the season he's calling me into. And so if that sounds familiar to you, if you have ever been able to recall moments where life has really knocked you upside your head, is knocked you down, and you're wondering, like, who am I in this version of. Of. Of my life? Who am I? Right? What's happening? Right? And it doesn't always have to be terrible, right? You can be doing a great job. You can be working out your salvation with fear and trembling, okay? And still find yourself in this place as you elev. Elevate to a new level in Christ. Because it's something we haven't seen before, and it's newness that he's requiring of us. It could be trauma, it can be loss. It could be all kinds of things that life throws at us. And so if that resonates with you, this episode is definitely for you. So we want to start off by really identifying the reality of losing your identity, because that's such a real thing, right? Especially when any of you have gone through therapy, right? A lot of times what happens is we find ourselves realizing that we're not who we thought we were, or we realize that who we have become is not who we want to be, right? And that's really the tip of the iceberg, right? When you're coming to Christ and he's showing you you and you're seeing you, because now you're experiencing something pure, you're like, whoa, this is not. Who. Who am I? What is that? Right? And even as you're walking with Christ, even as you are steady maturing and growing in Christ, no matter what level of maturity you're at, whether you're a servant leader in your church or you're on the worship team, or you're a part of the media team, it doesn't matter. Even at your job, if you're a manager, if it doesn't matter in what capacity, a mother, a father, that you have entered into new roles, you can find yourself feeling like you've lost your identity if it's not rooted in Christ. And there is this understanding that God is helping me to come to. Because even with this episode, like I really was, like, I don't think, I don't think I should be recording this episode, Lord, because even right now, God, you are helping to root me even more in my identity. I don't feel like I am worthy to do this episode because I don't believe in being a hypocrite. I want to make sure I eat the whole scroll first. And the Lord encouraged me to still go forth and share my testimony in the now as I speak on these things. Because there is parts of this that I have walked out already. And then there's parts of it where God is still working out. And when we're talking about being able to. To first admit that you don't know yourself, right? Like, I remember being in that place. I remember when I first came to Vegas and I first began to do the work. I'm away from my family, I'm away from everything that I know. And I was really in the. In my wilderness season of being with myself and being faced with yourself and looking yourself in the mirror and realizing you don't recognize who's looking back at you, or you hate who's looking. Looking back at you. You. You. You disdain who they are, every part of them. You hear the thoughts. Like, there's an exercise I like to give in therapy. There's a. That's a mirror exercise. And I'll go through that in a little bit. And it really helps you to build that self relationship again because you can really find yourself lost. Like, who am I? Why do I make these decisions that I make? Why do I think the way that I think? Why am I running from myself? Does anybody ever felt that way? Because I literally felt that way before. When your career isn't going the way you thought it would go, when you don't have the relationships you thought you would have, whether it's friendships, romantic, or maybe you went through a breakup, or the person became abusive and they changed, or they just up and left, right? Or their motives were revealed, who you thought they were wasn't actually who they were, come on, somebody. And all of these things can cause us to be shaken because we've been living this version of our life, especially without Christ, that formed our identity right and so when it snatched, our identity becomes shaken. And what I've learned in walking with God, and what's so beautiful about it is when we're talking about connecting to Christ, this is not a religion. This is the foundation, this is a relationship. This is the. The foundations of the earth speaks to who our God is. And we're saying we're connecting to the One who created everything that we now see. And that's how deep our identity goes. That's how deep finding our identity in Christ is. Because we can go from a lost place where the world tries to put its imprint in our molds to going back to the potter's hand. Come on. Purposely restored and letting him break us so that he can mold us into who he called us to be. Before we were ever formed in our mother's womb, I said a prayer. Like just last night, I was talking with the Lord and I said, you know, Lord, I don't want the DNA of my family. No, I want my DNA to reflect who you spoke, what you spoke about me before I was even formed in my mother's womb. Like, what were those words? And it was almost in that moment, as the Holy Spirit helped me to intercede and speak that in prayer, that I could see just words, as if the Word just was speaking these things that made up the very being that has manifested in the flesh now today. And it's like God, I want to connect with who that is, who you said that I am, so that I can be all of that and accept all of that. Because it's one thing to just recognize that this is who God said you are. This is how God created you, all of your peculiarities. But it's a whole nother thing to accept it. And that's where we want to move into learning how we can reconnect our identity to Christ once we've feel like we. We lost it. When we recognize that we're lost, that we don't know ourselves, that we don't know who God has called us to be, that we're tired of existing in being a stranger to the person that's looking back at us. Once we've come to that place of being able to acknowledge it and recognize that there has been a disconnect here. There is. It's something that has been lost. Now we can now go to the One who can reconnect us. It makes me think of Ezekiel 36 and the Valley 36 and 37. And just when it talks about all these different things, the valley of dry bones and how it all came back together, the bones and the flesh over the bones, and it became in the breath. He blew the breath in the body, and it just. It became a living being again. What was once dead became living again. And only Christ can do that for us. So how. One step one. We want to recognize the lies that we've been telling ourselves. We want to recognize the lies that we believed about ourselves. And that's where in the, in the kingdom world, we start getting into word curses and things of that nature and uprooting that. Because even from a young child, let's get into it. When we're talking about trauma and understanding how trauma works, all of those word curses and different things take root. Even to this day. There is times where the enemy wants to try to sneak in and replay things that were said to me when I was younger to reinforce certain ideology that would cause depression or cause overthinking or cause me to shut my mouth or whatever the case may be. And I have to know my identity in Christ. I have to know what God has said about me, what the truth is, what the truth has said against that lie. And so the only way we can recognize the lies that we believed about ourselves is if we learn what the truth is. And so I encourage you to definitely get into your Word. Get into the. A community that goes by the word of God. You see the word of God in action around you, so you can also hear it in conversation over the preach when you're. It's being preached as well, and when you're in your private time and it helps you to unlearn a lot of things that was spoken and go through therapy or get you a, a coach who has some therapeutic underlining, you know, practices, okay? So that you can also be able to recognize those doubt labels and those lies that you've come into agreement with. And step two, we want to start rebuilding our identity through scripture and prayer, which is what I just stated, right? We want to start getting into the Word. We want to start allowing the Word to tell us who we are, who we are meant to be. Okay? And I'm not talking about necessarily titles like if you're the Fivefold Ministry or if you're. I'm not even talking about that, guys. I'm talking about who you are as a daughter or son, who you are as. As being now engrafted into this kingdom of God, who God says you are. Why did he go through all of this? Why did he get on that cross? Hang and die, Go to the grave. Wait three days and get back up again. Why did he do that for you? That all goes into our identity, right? Even that basis that we have made to, to like, we. Unfortunately, you know, the world has seeped into the, the church and we've glorified power and titles and we have watered down the gospel, and it shouldn't be that way because the Word of God is powerful, period. We need the fivefold. We need that for. For order and excellence, right? And so in no way do we need this without that. We need both. We need the five fold because it edifies the body, it equips the body. That is the order God put in place. And for the body to function, it needs to know who it is in Christ. When we read the Word, when we read Romans and we're reading 1 Corinthians, we see Paul and, and, and we see different people, Peter, throughout the books, different books of the New Testament. They're talking to these audiences and they're instilling what their identity in Christ is, helping them to see their freedoms and liberties in Christ and how to live out their new identity, how to put to rest in bed and death the things that their old identity was founded in. And so when we get into the Word and we begin to read Romans and First Corinthians, 2 Corinthians, Hebrew, and we're reading all these books, right? And we're seeing the audience and we're like, okay, they're talking to this group of people, and we're doing our history and understanding what this group of people was facing at this time and why he was saying the things he was saying to them and help us. It helps us to properly interpret the Word even for our own understanding of how it applies to us, right? And so we want to make sure that we're taking not only the Word in into our hearts, but we're praying. We're seeking God. We're seeking God on who we're meant to be, where we're, what we're meant to do, how we're meant to do it, whether it's in speech or indeed like, lord, if I'm mean, help me to change my, my, my meanness. I'm not my nasty right. We have to be honest with the Lord and submit that into prayer. And I was even talking with one of my sisters and brothers in Christ the other night, the other day, and we were just talking about how a lot of people don't expose the thoughts and how the thoughts are actually the things that, that we're like. We're really taking to God, right? We. We talk about the out can see, but it was a moment in our conversation where we both were just like talking back and forth on how we'll have certain thoughts that were even taken to the Lord. And we're like, no, Lord, I don't want to even think like this because it's not aligned with you. And I don't want anything to cause me to be out of your will or an offense to you or possibly, you know, miss the kingdom. And I want to encourage you even to make sure that it's not just indeed that you're only looking at what you're putting out. Because fruit is important, our deed is important. But a lot of that is connected to a root, right? It's connected to a seed. Without a seed, there is no fruit, okay? Without no root, there is nothing that can sprout. So we want to make sure that we're also taking the thought processes to God. Those ugly thoughts that come into our head, we're submitting that, we're subduing that, and we're asking God to change our mind. The foundational, foundational scripture of glow unplug my business is Romans 12 and 2, because it really changed my life. It was one of the scriptures that changed my life. And, and that it talks about the renewing of the mind, right? And it's so that we can present ourselves. It's. We need to be able to live right? First of all holy and acceptable so that we can present ourselves in that manner, right? We ought to live as a living sacrifice so we can present ourselves as holy and acceptable. Thank you, Lord. Right? But there's a renewing of the mind that happens, and we want God to constantly do that. Another scripture that I love is in Psalm. I just was reading this yesterday. Psalm 51, right? 51 or 52. I think it's 52 that I have to look 51 or 52, right? And he talks about creating me a clean and contrite heart, renew a righteous spirit within me, right? And so constantly just bringing before the Lord the word of God in prayer for ourselves is another way that we can rebuild our identity through, through scripture. And the third way is walking boldly in who God says we are. Me doing this video right now, guys, is a part of me walking out. Step three, right? Walking boldly in who God says we are. I'm. I am in this place right now. This is a part of my now season of walking boldly and who God says I am and not worrying about what people Think or say. Because if God says that's how I am, that's who I am, then that's just what it is, right? Not watering myself down because it may be too potent for someone else, right? We're all called to a certain group of people. We're all meant for certain people. It's not just about a love life, right? We only hear about it when we're talking about romance, right? Where the, the person that's right for you will be like a right fit. But what about all the other, what about ministry? What about, we're talking about friendships, the same thing. You're meant for a certain population of people, right? Paul was sent to a certain population of people that God wanted him to impact. That was his ministry. Just like Peter was sent to, to a certain people and that was his ministry. But at the end of the day, we're all growing in Christ. God is yet perfecting us, which is maturing us on each level so that we can do the work he's calling us to do, right? This doesn't mean that I'm just gonna have that clause of just like being like. It is what it is like. God made me this way. I ain't changing no right. We change by way of the spirit of God. We let the Word continuously sharpen us be that two edged sword it is right and pruning us so that we can continue to produce much fruit. And as we're doing that, we boldly learn to walk in who God says that we are. And in order for that to happen, we do have to allow him to uproot. We have to allow him to, to cut. We have to allow him to expose. We have to allow him to do all the things that he does purposely to, to continuously utilize us and build us for his glory. Right? And so as our takeaway, right. I want to encourage you as one practical step you can take this week is doing this exercise that I mentioned earlier. In this video. I want you to spend some time in the mirror. Okay. May sound crazy, right? But I'm telling you, it works. A lot of times we're in the mirror, we're looking past ourselves. We're not really looking at ourselves. We're not really looking ourselves in the eyes. We're looking at our hair. We're looking at if we have something on our face, we're judging our appearance on whether or not it's acceptable or not. We're not actually looking at ourself and spending time looking at who we are. So I want you to spend Some time you can start off two to three minutes where you are just making eye contact with yourself and you are spending time just looking at yourself. What. What questions pop up? What thoughts pop up? What is the inner dialogue? What is the feelings that surface from you connecting your eyes with your own? And this is a practical step that we can start taking to reclaim our identity. Because whatever comes up during that exercise now I want you to take that to the Lord in prayer and I want you to take it to the Lord and bring it before Him. Ask him questions, lay it down the things that you don't like, lay it before his feet, ask him to help you so that you can be all who God has called you to be. And then, of course, don't forget to spend time in his Word as you lay before him, all those things that are from that exercise. Make sure that you spend some time asking him to lead you into his Word so that you can grow in who God is calling you to be, who God has said you are, and just ultimately knowing who he is. So if this episode blessed you, I want you to let me know in the comments. I want you to also, you can even hit this new link that is in the comments from my buzzsprout and it will allow you to send me a direct text and I will get right back to you. Okay? And we are going to end this episode with some prayer. Okay? So, Lord, we bless you for the opportunity to even connect in such a way. Father, I pray that anyone that is struggling with their identity in any form or any facet, that, Lord, you will come into our lives, that you would hallelujah, have your way. You would show that we are truly fearfully and one wonderfully made. It's not just some colloquial term, but you have purposed us for a reason. I pray, oh God, that every painful memory, every painful experience, oh God, every thing that the enemy meant for evil, that you will turn it around for our good, that you will restore us, oh God, Father, to who you've called us to be, restore our joy and who you've called us to be in our uniqueness, oh God, restore, oh God, our confidence in who you have said we are. Let us be reminded, oh God, of who we belong to and ultimately the joy and hope we found in Christ Jesus. I pray, oh God, that every label that is not of you, every false label, every false burden, every word, curse that it be released and broken off of your people. In the mighty name of Jesus. Amen. Hallelujah. So I hope this episode blessed you once again, please connect with me. You can hit the link in the description, or you can go to the purposely restored Instagram and make sure you leave a comment or DM me there. I love to know your takeaways, your feedback from this episode, and of course, remain purposely restored. All right, I'll see you guys next time. Hey beautiful people. Thanks for tuning in. Did you enjoy that episode? Well, you don't want to miss a new one, so make sure that you hit subscribe so you can get notified every time we drop a new episode. And if you're really feeling bold, share this episode with a friend and leave us a comment below. Stay blessed and encouraged. I'll see you in the next episode.