"The more we let God take us over, the more truly ourselves we become—because He made us. He invented all the different people that you and I were intended to be."

— C.S. Lewis

If you asked me who I was when I was 14 years old I could have told you a couple things, but my primary answer would have been: a basketball player. I’ve always had a borderline unhealthy relationship with the sport of basketball and this time of my life was right around the peak of my delusion. I had repeatedly preached a message of promise to myself: if you work hard at this, it will give you purpose, hope, and status. You can only imagine how jarring it was when I spent the remainder of my high school years ping-ponging between crutches and rehabilitation, playing only two years of competitive basketball while in school.

Perhaps mine is a silly example for you, but I guarantee that you have made several promises to yourself about who you are. My guess is that those around you have offered similar pathways and opinions as well. What a challenge it is to find the disconnect between those identity-shaping promises and the secure guarantees that God has offered about you in His Word. The all-knowing, all-powerful God that made you and knit your soul together has something to say about you, whether you realize it or not. He knows the very fabric of your being, and has no issue telling you who you are, whether you are willing to believe Him or not. The peace of the Christian life is found in our discovery of those promises, and our submission to them. In our passage, we see a secure David, finally realizing the promise that God made him so long ago. He was always the king, but on this day the check was cashed.

Read 2 Samuel 5

1. What kind of feelings do you think David had about God’s promise over those 15 years?

If you were in David’s shoes, how would you have felt at year 12 when you were still

struggling and waiting?

2. Do you know what God says about your identity? What are some of those things? What

is difficult for you to submit your heart to there? Why?

3. Who do you have in your corner that knows what you struggle to believe? How have

you invited them to speak into that? If no one, who will you invite? How will you open

yourself up to them?