You open your phone and scroll. Someone got promoted. Someone got engaged. Someone started a business and posted the logo. You close the app and feel like a spare part that never got assigned to a machine.
If that is where you are, this is for you. Not a pep talk. Just what Scripture says, said plainly.
1. The order matters
Look at Matthew 3:17. Jesus has just been baptized, and a voice comes from heaven: “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”
Now notice what has not happened yet. No sermons. No miracles. No crowds. No résumé at all. He has not done one thing in public, and the Father has already said what He thinks of Him.
Approval first. Work after. That was the order for Jesus, and it is worth asking why we keep trying to run it backwards.
2. The measuring stick is the problem
Most advice tells you to find your passion, build your brand, discover your gifts. It assumes you simply have not achieved enough yet. So you try harder, and the stick just gets longer.
Here is what that does to a regular Tuesday. Your boss hands you a task that feels beneath you. Your kid ignores you. You look at your bank balance and feel behind. A voice says you are not doing enough with your life. If your worth rides on output, that voice wins every time, because there is always more output.
The church is not going to hand you a career plan and call it a calling. A job can be a good thing. It is not what makes you who you are.
3. Some of your identity was handed to you
In the notes from Pastor Alan’s teaching on breaking covenants, one question stands out: “Have you ever realized you were living out an identity someone else gave you?” Maybe it was the kid who got passed over. The one who was never quite enough. The one who was only worth something when useful.
His emphasis point on that same subject is blunt: “Old identities create spiritual agreements that must be broken.” You may have been agreeing with a label for twenty years. Agreements can be broken. That is not a technique. It is what the New Covenant is for (Hebrews 8:6-13).
And he said it another way in The Crossroads: “Many people are Free Physically but Bound Mentally.” You can be out of the old situation and still living in the old story about yourself.
4. What God says is settled
Scripture is plain about where you stand if you are in Christ. 2 Corinthians 5:17 says, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.”
Be honest, though. Your daily life may not feel very new. Same temptations. Same fears. Same doubts. Do not pretend that gap away. The feeling is real. It means the feeling and the fact have not caught up with each other yet.
Paul knew that gap. In Romans 7 he wrote about doing the very thing he did not want to do. A man who wrote a good share of the New Testament admitted he was a mess. Being chosen did not require him to feel finished.
5. Set your mind, then take the next step
Pastor Alan taught from Romans 8:5-6 that Paul did not say minds drift there. He said they set their minds. So do not try to feel chosen today. Feelings follow slowly. Set your mind on what God has said, and let the feelings catch up.
As Pastor Alan put it, “You cannot always choose what happens to you, but you can choose how you think about it.” And, “Your Future is not Determined by Chance. It is Shaped by Choices.”
So start small. Read Matthew 3 and stop at that voice from heaven. Ask yourself one honest question: if I believed the order was approval first, work second, what would I stop trying to prove this week?
Maybe it is the group chat where you keep trying to seem impressive. Maybe it is the late nights chasing a title. Maybe it is the quiet promise that once you finally get somewhere, you will be allowed to rest. Then do the next ordinary thing well, without it carrying your whole name. Show up for the shift. Call the person you have been avoiding. Take care of the people in front of you.
As Pastor Alan put it, “Faith sees what Fear Cannot see.” His message Baptized but Bound is on the church’s YouTube channel if this is where you are. We meet Sundays at 3pm in White House, Tennessee, and Thursday Bible Study is at 6:30pm. Come as you are. You are not auditioning.
Scripture in this piece: Matthew 3:17; 2 Corinthians 5:17; Romans 7; Romans 8:5-6; Hebrews 8:6-13