What are my identity desires?
And she made this vow: “O Lord of Heaven’s Armies, if you will look upon my sorrow and answer my prayer and give me a son, then I will give him back to you.”
1 Samuel 1:11, NLT
A mom and dad who had four kids would play a game called “Spot the Lie” while they watched TV.
They would watch a whole commercial and then decide together what the ad was promising and what lie it was using to get the consumer to purchase the product. Marketers do this very well because they understand the deepest wants and desires of humanity and then play to them.
Sometimes we want to be marketed to. We will want an outcome so badly that we’re willing to listen to the ads of the world to find our solution: Get this perfume, realize a life of adoration and adventure. Purchase this computer, become the most productive version of yourself.
Who we want to be—our identity—is at the root of our deepest desires. It was for Hannah when she prayed this to God. She was living disconnected from who she wanted to be: a mother.
ACT
Has an ad recently convinced you to buy something? What problem was it solving? Journal about how it may have played to your identity desires.
pray
God, I want to find my identity in you, but the world is trying to sell me lies. Help me to be alert to those lies and to my vulnerabilities that make me susceptible to them.