It’s Time to Rise

By Kim Hayes

I've been broken... on the floor more times than I can count.

But that time is over.

This season does not define me, and it is not who I am.

Now is the time to build.

And in order to build, I have to trust and surrender to what God has for me.

Is my current season over? No.

But I can no longer allow this season to take over who I am.

And this isn't just for me. It's for anyone reading this who has allowed a season, a struggle, a diagnosis, a failure, a trauma, or someone else's opinion to become their identity.

Your season does not define you.

Your circumstances do not define your worth.

Other people do not get to define who you are.

The world has a way of defining us by what is happening to us. And sometimes, without even realizing it, we begin to see ourselves through the same lens.

Our struggles become our identity.

Our failures become our labels.

Our past becomes our future.

Someone else's opinion becomes the voice we believe.

But why?

Why are we allowing the world to define us?

Why do we give so much weight to the opinions of people who don't know the full story?

Labels are dangerous because eventually people stop seeing the person underneath them. They only see the word, the struggle, or the season that has been placed on them.

But that label doesn't have to become your identity.

You have a choice.

God gave us free will, and that choice doesn't only apply to sin. It applies to how we respond, what we believe, whose voice we listen to, and what we choose to do with the life He has given us.

So today, what are you going to choose?

Are you going to live according to what others have said about you?

Or are you going to live according to what God says about you?

Because, friend, those are two very different things.

The world can be cruel. Sometimes people speak from the wounds and trauma they have experienced themselves. But their trauma is not your trauma. Their path is not your path. Their purpose is not your purpose.

You don't have to carry what God never asked you to carry.

Today, I choose to believe what God says about me.

I choose to believe that I am chosen.

I am adopted.

I am loved.

I am forgiven.

I am a daughter of the King.

I am His.

That is the identity I want to live from.

Why?

Because that path isn't defined by cruel words, fear, trauma, or the opinions of others.

It's defined by life.

I would rather adjust my crown than adjust my identity to fit someone else's expectations.

I would rather smile than live in constant sorrow.

I would rather walk in God's favor and abundance than live a life controlled by fear and strife.

There is no spirit of fear here.

There is life.

So I'm dusting off my feet.

I'm rising from the ashes.

I'm rebuilding.

I'm trusting.

I'm surrendering.

And I'm choosing to believe that what God says about me matters more than anything the world could ever say.

Because words matter.

So why would I choose words that bring death when I can choose words that speak life?

Today, I choose life.

What will you choose?

"Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come."
2 Corinthians 5:17

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