About the Author

Stephanie Bryant is the co-founder of @incourage and a podcaster at the #JesusLedAdventurePodcast. She owns a Marketing & Business Coaching company. She is passionate about guiding you to your promised land and personal brand therapy. She enjoys spending her days with her husband and their miracle daughter, Gabrielle, on #BryantFamilyFarm....

(in)side DaySpring: things we love
& you will too!
Find more at DaySpring.com
(in)side DaySpring:
things we love
& you will too!
Find more at
DaySpring.com
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Comments

  1. Thanks Stephanie. This is a open post and I like it. For years I struggled with my identity. But our Lord is a God of wonders. He heals the brokenhearted. And that I experience as a mother. As the wife of my husband. He heals relationships. And he is with us in all our instabilteit,that we sometimes feels. Love this blog. I am glad because you are so close to the reader.

  2. I find that the Lord keeps bringing me right back to the basics. When I’m overwhelmed or unsure or confused, He reminds me who He is, and everything else seems to fall into place.

  3. Stephanie – you write of my heart’s cry. I wish I could have this realization only once and be done with it. This line right here is exactly where I am, “I pray to understand it myself so she won’t only hear the words but she will see a life that reflects the very ideal.”, in regards to my prayers for my own two young ones. Thank you for such real and encouraging words.

  4. I’ve struggled with who I am lately because my oldest two children have left home. My identity as an everyday nurturing mother is changing. But, always I am His. Thank you for this lovely reminder.

  5. Thank you for a beautiful reminder. I want to encourage you today that you already ARE a mother of a wonderfully pre-born reward (Psalm 127:3)!

  6. I am constantly re-learning this, too, and then realizing I have so much more to understand in it. It’s the most simple but profound thing. So glad to see that I’m not alone in coming back to this over and over again. And grateful that we have this community to encourage each other to deeper levels of understanding as well!

  7. The Spirit is busy with this topic this week. It struck me, haunted me: is who I am… enough? But He says I’m fearfully and wonderfully made, and I am beloved and more than that… He wants me to have to lean on Him. I love how you said it,

    “I AM tells me I am His. My identity was never my own. My plans are futile apart from Him. Only His plans matter. Only He can accomplish Kingdom work through me. My identity is hidden IN HIM… Doesn’t that make you take a deep breath? It does me. The pressure is off. The duties are gone. The wondering is ceased.”

    Amen! Thank you for the reminder today that it’s ok to be less, because that makes it easy to make MORE of Him.

    He used a song to remind me. You can see it here, if you’re interested. http://www.walkagape.org/2013/02/beloved.html

    And congratulations on your growing baby girl! <3

    • Praise God for you, Stephanie, and Jessica. I really like the statement, “it’s ok to be less, because that makes it easy to make MORE of Him.” Wow! I want so to grasp many things in this devotion, as a mother of a 16 y ear old daughter with whom I struggle in relationship. 🙁 (I am 56 years of age).

      I tried to see the song for which you gave a link, Jessica, and it didn’t come up. Would you tell us the name of the song and who sings it, please? Thank you. God bless you all richly!

      Love,
      Because of Jesus,
      Cindy

  8. My Spirit Lesson from HIM all this dark dark winter. I am so grateful for beginning to have my tight-shut eyes opened to this incredible truth through the pain HE is allowing to grow this knowledge in me. Thank you for your reiterating HIS lesson to me this morning.

  9. Oh this: “I AM tells me I am His. My identity was never my own. My plans are futile apart from Him. Only His plans matter. Only He can accomplish Kingdom work through me. My identity is hidden IN HIM.” It is my heart’s cry too and a truth I need to be reminded of so often. I am so very glad that my identity is hidden as Him, that He has called me and made me His. Oh what joy! Glory be to Him!

  10. Just beautiful, Stephanie. Thank you for sharing. I made the Brennan manning quote my laptop background.

  11. Beautiful.. thank you for sharing important thoughts and questions. We all have gifts and roles that only we can play. God has planned them.. before our first breaths were taken. So it will be with your little one. Your role will be to nurture the gifts you see in that child and remind them that they have a purpose, a plan, a journey… designed by the Creator, to fulfill.
    Our identity is in Him and no matter if we have babies or are empty-nesters, God continues to reveal His plans for us.
    Ill be speaking on this topic this weekend at a women’s conference and that excites me.
    Keep encouraging dear girl!

  12. this: “This is what I would say to my daughter someday. I pray to understand it myself so she won’t only hear the words but she will see a life that reflects the very ideal.” There is no greater gift to give your kids than this identity in Christ. It’s all the wealth they need. It is hard, to choose to live out in front of them the realities of belonging in and to Christ. It gets really hard as they grow older and the pressures and demands on them to conform to the world. But I can tell you — it’s so worth it!

    • I really would love to teach my daughter to live in Christ but im not 100% sure how to do that myself. i struggle with my identity everyday with being a single mother and having to deal with her father.

      • Being a single mother myself, I know how hard it is everyday to face the challenge of raising a child with an absent father. An absent father who not only didn’t help me at all , but in fact made life harder for me.I have to remind myself almost everyday that first, God loves ,( yes ) even that absent father. Second , I cannot help what that father does , but yes, I can help what I do. With these two things in mind, God will give you the strength you need to raise your child and to keep Christ number one in your life and in your home, no matter what struggles you go through… and you will have struggles.. Be strong in the Lord! In our weakness, He shines through.

  13. I love the messages of courage and hope shared with all of us waiting———sometimes frozen in prayer– I have been praying for many years for my son, a prayerful, lovable, well educated and well placed, now 35- to find a truly loving , prayerful and compatible life partner for a happy marriage– but somehow the years go by and no decision happens-

    – I pray that God will send His miracle soon– and stop me from worrying so much about how lonely he can be in a distant continent away from home—I pray that my husband and I stay well and trusting in the infinite power of God’s love and care

    I have to say that I have seen God’s miracle happening right now with his twin sister, and I am so grateful for this–

  14. Loved the post! Every now and then I/we all need a reminder of who we really are in Christ!

    Thanks for the reminder!

  15. I BELIEVE I am His,,,, thanks for your sweet reminder…Why is it so hard to FEEL this sometimes? Sometimes I feel nothing at all, but I tie a knot and hold on to Him because He is my strength.

  16. Truly our God is a great God. Through his divine plan Jesus came “to set the captives
    free”, and who the Son of Man sets free He is free indeed. We must remember though
    we are human (God knows this) and are beset by doubts and tests all our lives.
    This is why the quotes from Stephanie are so vital to our spirits’ growth. It is not about
    our own smartness or accomplishments etc. Our lives are “hid in the depths of His
    love” and this makes us safe, despite our fickle thinking, etc. It is truly wonderful that it is not up to us. This is a wonderful way to start the day- reflecting on the fact that
    the great I AM not only marvellously and wonderfully made me, but I am in Him for
    always, and He made it possible. Praise His Holy Name. Important to tell our children.

  17. I am who God says I Am!! A grandmother,
    now single for several years: sInce that event, single, I searched for my identity, found that no matter what God shows up 24/7! He gave me a home to plant flowers, to
    decorate my life for him. I did, still struggled with a loss. Today, I’m recovering from a foreclosure, what I know is I always identified with the Lord, I just needed to know who the giver is, and his awesome love and not let others take away our joy. I’m back in track saving for & planning on a home next spring deep understanding All good things do indeed come from Him. Your post is so timely
    I was just praying for my true identity!! Thank you.

  18. Today in prayer, the Lord has done a wonderful innerhealing. Later on I was reflecting on this same theme: my identity…. and I had a revelation, you could say that I will like to share with you: my identity comes from His life living within me because the Father loves His own life within us. So in loving us He is loving Love Himself. I can’t explain that better. I hope it throws some light into the matter. Pr aise be His name. Then I just opened this mail and here I find your page. Wonderful because it is sort of a confirmation.

  19. Hi Stephanie,
    I read your short devotion Who Am I, I AM on the Day Spring website today. It so blessed me I wanted to read the full devotional and I went on to your website (in)Courage. It was so reassuring and freeing even at the age of 65 and being a Christian for close to 50 years I still struggle with identy. But your writing remined me that my life is hidden in Christ and by His grace I don’t have to walk in the shadow of any other person but just let His Light shine through me. More of Him and less of me. He that began the good work will perform it . Becky

  20. I am glad I read this, it makes you know that you are God’s creation, and that our Identity in Christ alone makes us who we are. I want to be more like him. Thanks for the encouraging words! May The Lord bless you Steph!

  21. I am so touched.. being reminded that I am His and precious in His sight. I am hum bled reading all the heartfelt posts and realize that I am not alone in my struggle, in our humanness we need to be reminded and thank God that each day, in some way we are reminded of His love for us. In His word, in a smile, in a comment, and in a post 🙂