This is what a sports writer and admitted Tiger Woods groupie wrote about Woods the day after he lost at the 2013 Masters golf tournament. “Tiger’s weakness is adversity.” He goes onto to quote a noted sociologist, “There are three wells of strength people throughout history have drawn on in times of need. The first is family. The second well of strength has typically been religion. The third well of strength we as human beings tend to draw on is that long running, deeply rooted identification with a particular group beyond family and religious affiliation, and those tend to be ethnic or racial.”
The writer summarized this to identity. “An identity gives your personality an edge, an attitude.…When you don’t have an identity, you want to be loved by everyone, you’re afraid to have an edge and you don’t know what to do when you fall behind.”
I find it interesting that knowing who we are is a strong factor when it comes to experiencing victory over our challenges; the opportunities that make us want to choose our drugs of choice. It’s also no coincidence that the very first tool every believer needs to use each day is, “You’re secure because you’re God’s child.” We may not have the best family relationships; but the moment we put our faith in Jesus, He tells us who we are – a child of God, and puts us into another larger family– other believers here locally and around the world who can pray for us (Eph. 6:18).
If we want to stay in the freedom Jesus gave us, we must give others permission to speak into our lives (April 15 entry). Then we must be secure enough in the truth that we are God’s children in order to listen to and act on what they have to say. The Spirit has given us these wells from which to draw strength each day. Let’s pray for each other that we do.
“S”et Free Noww“W”