Afflictions and Freedom

Stop owning your afflictions.

We need a change of language.

It isn't:

my anxiety

my sickness

my lack of confidence

my trauma

my negative thoughts

my eating disorder

my asthma

my cancer

my addiction

my MS

my insecurity

You can experience these, but you don't have to own them. As soon as you make them yours, they become part of your identity - and then it's harder to move away from them.

Or, dare I say it, harder to ask God to get rid of them.

We feed some of the afflictions we own - they become our excuses for staying in our comfort zone. We get so accustomed to living with them that we can barely ask God to heal us and free us. We begin to question, who will I be without my *insert affliction here*.

I'll tell who you are: you're who Jesus says you are. A chosen and cherished child of God, saved and redeemed for a purpose, equipped with God-given gifts and filled with the resurrection power of the Holy Spirit. Jesus came to give life to the full, your affliction cannot break that promise.

Jesus is the only one who gets to define you - your affliction doesn't get a say.

• I'm not trivialising these, or saying they are caused by a negative mindset, I'm saying that no matter how bad they are they still don't get to define you.

Become part of your testimony - yes.

Be an avenue for God's power - yes.

Impact you - yes.

Define you - no.