"That's Just the Way I Am"

"For I was born a sinner - yes, from the moment my mother conceived me." -Psalm 51:5

Have you ever thought about how much we are born the way we are? There is often debate about the nature vs. nurture perspective of the way each of us turns out. While I believe we are a combination of both, I also believe, like the Bible says, that we are born sinners in need of salvation. (Romans 3:9 &10) This is evidenced by all the evil that goes on in the world by human hands.

Many times we can think that we are a certain way and there is no changing that. While I believe this to be true in some cases, like the color of our hair, the color of our skin, our eyes, and how tall or short we are and some aspects of our personality, I believe that sometimes we allow the "that's just the way I am" mentality to get in the way of our sanctification and our healing. We can easily allow this excuse to get in the way of the fullness that God desires for us and in the way of His love for us.

C.S. Lewis once said, "The more we let God take us over, the more truly ourselves we become - because He made us. He invented us. He invented all the different people that you and I were intended to be... It is when I turn to Christ, when I give up myself to His personality, that I first begin to have a real personality of my own."

We might very well be born with certain traits, but inviting God into our lives brings us back to the way He created us before the womb, and He begins to free us from our human condition. We are made alive in Him, because of His redemption. The Bible says we go from glory to glory, (2 Corinthians 3:18), meaning when we've accepted Christ as our redeemer, we are constantly being shaped into the person He originally designed us to be. We become more and more free from the power of sin and death. (Romans 6:6)

"For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive." -1 Corinthians 15:22

Are there any areas of your life that God might want to redeem, so that you might be fully free? Ask God to help you lay those down today. God desires that we be free from any hindrance to being our true selves, and worshipping and serving Him, our creator.

Related resource: How People Grow: What the Bible Reveals About Personal Growth by Henry Cloud & John Townsend

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