I was sitting at my desk in my little cubicle at work. I worked as a customer service agent in a call center back then. We were supposed to be studying work materials in between phone calls – we typically had only 2 or 3 calls a day – but some of the supervisors didn’t mind if we read. So I would pull out my Bible. I know, it sounds so spiritual, but I was sincere. As a teenager, I had walked away from church. My dad was a pastor and for a long time I told myself that if having a relationship with God meant acting like those hypocritical “church people,” I didn’t want anything to do with that. Deep down, I knew better. I grew up surrounded by “those church people,” yes, but I had heard God’s voice as a kid and I also grew up around people who really loved Jesus and just wanted to serve Him. I had seen both sides. So, I knew better. Which is why I went back to church shortly after I rededicated my life to God in my early twenties and how I found myself sitting at my desk that day, opening the Bible.

I was reading chapter 41 in the book of Isaiah for the first time. When I got to verses 9-10, I KNEW, I just knew God had written those words just for me…

“I have called you back from the ends of the Earth so that you can serve Me. For I have chosen you and will not throw you away. Do not be afraid, for I am with you. Do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you. I will help you. I will uphold you with My victorious right hand.”

And at that moment, everything I had previously known about myself was different because God chose me. He called me. Called me back from the ends of the Earth. Called me back, from a life of sin, insecurity, fear, failure, immorality, doubt, hurt, injustice, pain, abuse, drug addiction. God called me back from all those things that I had given myself to.

God called me on purpose. Not only was I called, but I was also CHOSEN. Me, never-good-enough, always-someone-better-me, picked out of the crowd by God Himself.

Suddenly, it made sense to me. I had grown up in church, heard these things my whole life, but I never understood until that day. God literally picked me. He had a plan and a purpose for my life. No wonder I never felt like I fit anywhere. It’s because I didn’t fit - until I was defined by Him.  

And then He told me that I don’t have to be afraid anymore. Because He is with me. I don’t need to find the strength to be good enough, I don’t need to worry if I don’t have enough, know enough, do enough. Because He is enough. He will help me. He will strengthen me. He will uphold me. I don’t have to prove myself worthy anymore because He saw fit to call me worthy. Worthy of Him. Worthy of love. Worthy to be chosen. I felt like the kid picked first for a team in gym class. I was worthy! When the world told me I would never be enough, He called me enough.

Everything I thought about myself, everything that I thought had made up the definition of me – was changed that day.

I was redefined.

And that is my hope for you dear friend. That you would come to know, to “have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high and how deep His love is.” (Eph. 3:18) That you have been purposefully created, that you are completely known and totally loved. That God delights in you. And that you may have been one person before you met God, but as soon as you believe in your heart that Christ is your Savior, He calls you by a new name. That moment, He calls you chosen. Enough. Beloved. Everything you were before that moment is gone; you are redefined.

In Christ, you are a new creation. Now all you have to do is live that truth.

Come along, on this journey with me. Let’s learn together how to live redefined.