Text: Isaiah 42:1-25, Isaiah 43:1-28, Psalm 72:1-4, 2 Corinthians 5:17
I miss Pluto.
When I was a kid, there were nine planets in our solar system. But somewhere between getting my college degree and buying our first house, Pluto got bumped from true planet status on a technicality. I’ve never gotten used to rattling off the names of the heavenly bodies and stopping short at Neptune.
Recently I was bemoaning Pluto’s tragic and seemingly unstable galactic status when my husband laughed and reasoned with me, “Raechel. Pluto hasn’t changed. Nothing has changed about what it’s made of—it’s just that the people who have never actually been to Pluto don’t call it a planet anymore.”
I bet you feel a lot like Pluto sometimes. I do. For better or worse, we allow someone who doesn’t know us—someone trillions of miles away—to define us. We receive the world’s labels and live at the mercy of everyone else’s “technicalities.” We trade the truth we know about ourselves for a lie, and go on living misunderstood, mislabeled, or just plain forgotten.
How can we halt this orbit of lies? How can we respond when we’re pretty sure some of the unfortunate (or downright awful) labels the world sticks to our chests are technically true about us?
Let’s turn to God’s Word together. Let’s let the One who made us tell us what we’re made of and what we’re made for. Only God has the ability to define you, so let’s see how He defines you.
He calls you beloved (Romans 9:25).
You are His treasured possession (Deuteronomy 7:6).
You are His child (John 1:12, Romans 8:17).
You are free (Galatians 5:1).
You have been redeemed (Ephesians 1:7).
You have been and will be restored (1 Peter 5:10, Colossians 1:13-14).
You have been and can be forgiven (Hebrews 10:17, 1 John 1:9).
That’s not all. Your God—the One Hebrews 13:8 tells us is forever unchanging—He not only names you, He pursues you and cares for you personally.
We see this pursuit in the book of Isaiah. And painful as it is to watch God’s people refuse Him, chapter after chapter, it is all the more astounding to watch as God loves them still. He “who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and what comes from it, who gives breath to the people on it”—He is the one who appointed a Savior to be “a covenant for the people and a light to the nations, in order to open blind eyes, to bring out prisoners from the dungeon” (Isaiah 42:5-7).
That’s why, even in the midst of threat and uncertainty, God tells His people to do something extraordinary—He tells them to sing! “This is what I will do for them,” we read in the text (v.16). And then the words our approval-seeking hearts long to hear: “I will not forsake them.”
And He won’t. Scripture makes it clear.
He knew each of your days before you were conceived (Psalm 139:16).
He has your name written on the palm of His hands (Isaiah 49:16).
It is your name —yours!—which He has called “mine” (Isaiah 43:1).
It is your head on which He numbers each strand of hair, and your tears of which He keeps count (Matthew 10:29-31, Psalm 56:8).
It was for you He died while you were yet a sinner (Romans 5:8).
The world will label you all your life. Tall, short, smart, bossy, ugly, pretty, worth it, and not. But here is the only label that truly matters:
“Now this is what the Lᴏʀᴅ says—
the one who created you, Jacob,
and the one who formed you, Israel—
‘Do not fear, for I have redeemed you;
I have called you by your name; you are mine.’”
– Isaiah 43:1
I listened to Tim Keller’s sermon ” Blessed Self Forgetfulness” on Monday and have had it rolling around in my brain and chewing on the meat of it since. God is the only one who can define us because He made us. We are made in His image, His likeness. We are the only creation breathing in His breath. We are made to breathe out His praise! “Breathing in His grace and breathing out His praise”. Just keep breathing!
I know that this devotion was in part a response to some of the crying out I’ve done in the past few weeks or months or even years. I am struggling to believe what God says about me. I think its a combination of a multitude of circumstances and labels internalized that leave my spirit crushed. Simply put, its hard to counter these labels when you have a host of things suggesting otherwise. Honestly, I’m not sure what to do. I’m not sure how to pull myself together. I no longer have friends who can pour into me because I’ve had to move over 10 times in my adult life. People get tired of following you around, sustaining a relationship, etc. New people see you as transient and not worth the investment. Don’t get me me wrong, I’m a fighter and will be functional but I worry that my heart is growing hardened. I have little mercy for myself and I am starting to believe that this is it. I’ve asked God for a simple break from the hard stuff. Just enough to catch my breathe, fill my tank, and gain spiritual and emotional composure but I’m starting to think that I am destined for a life of suffering without reprieve. And perhaps that is my contribution in this world. I will have to gain acceptance.
Praying for you right now that the Lord would grant you a reprieve. That He would show you He has so much more for you than suffering. That He would remove your heart of stone, that He would pour out His Spirit into all your desert places.
Oh Hope. This is tough time for you, and I am sorry you are going through it.
Moving is hard, finding lasting connections is hard. I know I have moved so many times as an adult too.
I pray God brings something or someone into your path today to remind you that you are not alone. He is with you, and He has people for you in the city in which you are in. It’s hard to believe, but it is true.
God is for you. ❤️
Lately I’ve been relying on my friends and fiance’s actions to define who I am and how valuable I am. Sometimes, as a Christian your expectations get so high in relationships and when they don’t meet your expectations, you feel let down and discouraged. I want to believe what God says about my worth and the fact that He counts the tears as well as the strands of hair on my head. I pray that what God says about me rings louder than any action or words that anyone says or doesn’t say about me. ❤️
Isaiah 42:6(b)-7(a) gave me some great worship this morning. We got Jesus as a gift from God, given as a promise secured, a covenant-holy covenant-to be a light. To bring sight. To break free of the prisons that bind us. Y’all, we are bound to God because of Christ, as believers. He ushers us into this relationship and then brings sight, freedom. How we choose to live that out is ours and I am dumb-founded that I too often choose to not honor that covenantal relationship, attempting to put coverings on my “sight” and walk back into an unlocked prison cell.
So thankful to get to camp out in these verses and see another song of praise to give Him today.
I found myself laying in bed last night telling my husband that I was questioning everything…who God is, whether I’m actually saved, whether I really believe everything I’ve claimed to believe or if I’ve just gone along with what I’ve been told is true my whole life. Sometimes it all just feels so empty and silent, leaving me wondering if I really love Him or if I just go through all of the right motions. And isn’t it wrong that I would feel that? Shouldn’t it feel full? Shouldn’t I feel incredible love for my Savior all the time for who He is and what He did for me? And then, I opened today’s passage and devotional and it’s like He spoke directly to all of those questions, telling me who He is and who I am in His eyes. So today, my prayer is that the truths from this passage would push all of the lies out of our minds and fill us with the joy of the Lord! Really thankful for all of your responses and the honesty that helps me know that I’m not alone!
Thank you for sharing this, Casey! So encouraging to read this morning. Grateful that you’re in our community.
– Stormye
I’ve been feeling so discouraged lately in all aspects of my life and one of my biggest struggles is with the labels that I put on MYSELF – I’m unworthy, undeserving, or not good enough. Today’s devotional was a much needed reminder that the labels I apply to myself don’t carry any weight because He is the only one who can truly define me. I am a beloved, treasured, free, redeemed, restored, and forgiven child of God! Praise Him for that!
Praying for you, sweet Corrie. Asking the Lord to continue to define you and show you what it means to be His!!
– Stormye
Amen!!! SO beautifully said and so true! I am his chosen daughter! Couldn’t agree more
http://www.in-due-time.com
This is just what I needed today.
Jenny Stade
https://jennystade.wixsite.com/tebahofgrace