I love that God uses everyday events to reveal to us the truth of who we are. One night I was in the middle of making dinner when God revealed a wound of mine. Let me start by saying my husband is a very kind and loving man and this really had nothing to do with him, and everything to do with me. You see, my husband is an amazing cook. People tell him all the time that he missed his calling, that he should’ve been a chef. Whenever he cooks, he critiques his own cooking and tells me what he could’ve added to make it better and what he plans to do differently next time.
But this night, I had cooked. I worked for a while in the kitchen to prepare our meal and when he came home from work I served him a plate. He sat down at the table and began to eat. After a few minutes he said “Wow, this is really good. It's a really good meal! But you know what would have made this even more tasty?” I'm sure you can guess what happened next. He had come close to a wound, one that I didn’t even know I had but it would rear its ugly head from time to time when someone came close to it.
I immediately threw a wall up. In my mind, I had already shut him out for the evening and if it was up to me that would have been the end of it. But in that moment God hit the pause button and questions began to flood into my mind.
“What did you just hear him say? What did you just hear your husband say?”
So I answered Him. “I heard ‘You're never enough. No matter what you do, you just aren't enough. You just don't measure up.’”
And God said “Yes, that’s what you heard, but is that what he said?”
“No.”
“Is that true of you?”
“No.”
“Is that who you are?”
“No.”
I asked God to show me what the truth was about me, and He did!
The truth is my identity is in Christ, not my performance at all.
God asked, “Who do you think might have deceived you about yourself? Whose hand do you see in this? It's the one who comes to kill, steal and destroy.” And gently, in love He began to remind me that He created me with my talents, my abilities, my weaknesses, and my strengths, and that I could rest in His design of me.
I am enough because I am His creation.
He reminded me of a verse in Ephesians, “For we are God's masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things He planned for us long ago” Ephesians 2: 10 (NLT).
I am a masterpiece. Wow. I saw the hand of the thief who had tried to steal from me and also from my marriage that evening. But thanks be to God, His truth set me free (John 8:32).
I took down the wall I had put up between my husband and I, picked up my fork, joined my husband, and enjoyed my evening together with him.