Ryan Bailey

Shame and Identity, Part 6: What Is Shame?

By Ryan Bailey / 2023-12-18 /

Now that we understand our identity (both the Macro and the Micro), its source (Christ, not our performance), and how our identity is based on God’s efforts, not ours, let’s look at shame. On Day One of this devotional, when Jack made identity statements like, “I suck,” “I’m hopeless,” and “I’m a failure,” he was…

Shame and Identity, Part 8: Chewing On Scripture To Fight Shame

By Ryan Bailey / 2023-12-18 /

Today, we will look at the fifth step in our process of fighting shame and getting grounded in our identity in Christ. As we saw yesterday, the first four steps were: Now, let’s get into our fifth tool. This must be done repeatedly until the truth sinks into our hearts. For example, I might ask…

Shame and Identity, Part 4: The Micro Identity

By Ryan Bailey / 2023-12-18 /

Yesterday, we talked about our Macro identity: who we are as Believers through the work of Christ. Today, we’ll discuss our Micro identity. Our Micro identity is the part of our identity that is unique to us, the way no human is the exact same as another human. Our Micro identities were determined for us…

Shame and Identity, Part 3: The Macro Identity

By Ryan Bailey / 2023-12-18 /

As we learned yesterday, God, our Creator and Master, has given us our identity. To make this truth more digestible, we can break our identity into two parts: our Macro and Micro identities. Today, we will discuss the Macro identity. Tomorrow, we will discuss the Micro identity. The Macro identity is the identity we share…

Shame and Identity, Part 2: Where Does Our True Identity Come From?

By Ryan Bailey / 2023-12-18 /

Do we have the right to determine our own identity? Are we masters of our own fate and captains of our own souls? Genesis 1:27 tells us that God created us. As our creator, He knows how we are designed. He knows our essence. He even knows our worth. Genesis 1:26 says that of all…

Shame and Identity, Part 1: Meet Jack

By Ryan Bailey / 2023-12-18 /

Jack is the head of a ten-person law firm. He works with more clients than most attorneys do. He’s in a very stable and loving marriage. Jack has four children who respect and value him. He’s an elder at his church. Jack also struggles with his weight. He has no margin in his life and…

Too Busy to Have a Quiet Time… Try this: Part 1

By Ryan Bailey / 2023-11-22 /

We all know that it is vital that we connect to God throughout the day.  The more we do, the more we can’t help but praise and thank Him. If we connect to Christ throughout the day, we will abide in Him, and we are often far less tempted to indulge the flesh. Most people…

Too Busy To Have A Quiet Time? Try This: Part 2

By Ryan Bailey / 2023-11-22 /

Connecting to God is essential.  We can do nothing without Him. Yet all of us have had those days that are so full that it is hard to spend as much time as we want to with Him. On those days, we can pepper in some shorter ways of connecting to God. That way, we…

Too Busy To Have A Quiet Time? Try This: Part 3

By Ryan Bailey / 2023-11-22 /

This series discusses how to have quick but meaningful quiet times with God for those (hopefully rare) days when things are absolutely hectic. In the first blog, we discussed practicing the presence of Christ and breath prayers. In the second blog, we listed four more ways to connect with God, including two more ways we…

Too Busy To Have A Quiet Time… Try This: Part 4

By Ryan Bailey / 2023-11-22 /

If you’ve read the first three blogs in this series, you should see that there isn’t any excuse not to intentionally connect to God every day, even when you are super busy.  Some of the ideas we discussed could be done as you go.  The rest can be done in under five minutes. Of course,…