by Carmen K. Maendel
My Identity in Christ
Have you ever asked yourself, what is my identity and where is my identity derived from? I am Carmen Maendel and I am a child of God. My identity lies in Christ alone. In my chapter: Daughter of Our Most High King for the book: Pray, Live, Lead By Faith my desire is that God will speak directly through me to share my life experiences with you. I hope this will encourage you to seek your own identity in Christ. My life has meandered in multiple directions, and I have struggled to make wise decisions regarding my life in a number of different disciplines. My saving and growing faith is something that I choose to work on every day of my life. I am like a sculpture that God chisels on removing the less desirable attributes and leaving the ones that emulate Christ.
Daughter of Our Most High King
I was encouraged, by Hanna Olivas, to sit still for twenty minutes and reflect on all the blessings and ways God has moved through me and around me. At the end of that twenty minutes, I had the inspiration to move forward and write my chapter: Daughter of Our Most High King for the book I am collaborating on with several other amazing women authors. 2 Peter 1: 5-10 came to mind as I thought about how I wanted to pursue a life of praying, living, and leading by faith. I use these verses for the foundation of my chapter to illustrate how important Faith + Virtue + Knowledge + Self Control + Perseverance + Godliness + Brotherly Kindness + Love = The Christian Walk.
The Equation for the Christian Walk
I walk through each of these disciplines and outline how you can use this information and apply it to your life today. I break them apart and relate them to my story to help illustrate the importance of striving to lead a life that is pleasing to the Lord. Faith is extremely important and is believing in something that is not tangibly right in front of you. Hebrews 11:1 “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” Can you imagine believing in something that you can’t see? I believe that the difficulties in our ives can help our faith grow stronger. We can either become bitter or better in a situation, and the choices we make lead us into various outcomes in life. I trust, believe, and have full reliance on God. This is how I begin to pray, live, and lead by faith in my own life.
Skipping up to perseverance above helps us understand how important it is to pursue Godly things instead of worldly ones, and to live a life that closely emulates Christ. We are not perfect and we will always fall short. The only one that is perfect is Jesus Christ. He lived a perfect life here on earth, He died on the Cross for our sins, and He was raised up three days later from the tomb! When we believe in Jesus in our hearts and repent of our sins, we are given the gift of the Holy Spirit to guide us and eternal life.
As I reflect on working on Faith + Goodness + Knowledge + Self Control, I realize I am able to discipline myself and work toward perseverance. I will not stop trying to live a life that is pleasing to the Lord, even if I mess up consistently in my Christian walk. This is where repentance and the request for forgiveness comes in. Forgiveness mercy, and grace work in our lives allowing us to forgive, ask for forgiveness, and restore broken relationships in our lives. I have the perseverance to move through adversity in my life, especially in business. God has blessed me with four businesses in the past twelve years for opportunities to develop the fruits of the spirit: Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness, and Self Control. I talk about life experiences I have had in both my personal and business life to exercise and practice the fruits of the spirit in my life.
Godliness + Brotherly Kindness + Love are the three last pieces in the equation to The Christian Walk. We are called to not just persevere through life, but to embrace adversity and challenges with a Godly view and striving as much as we can toward Godliness, “that you may work worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.” (Colossians 1:10) We need to train ourselves with perseverance so we have the endurance to push ourselves toward Godliness. We need to look outside of ourselves with warm hearts to move toward Brotherly - Kindness and Love. I refer to my online program I created in 2023, Rock Hard Body (Power - Strength - Fitness) and share real life examples and guidance of ways you can Pray, Live, and Lead By Faith in the second half of my chapter: Daughter of Our Most High King. I hope and pray that this chapter can be both a resource and encouragement to you!
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