Mistaken Identity: The Hidden Stressor Robbing Women of Their Health
You are tired. You keep putting yourself last. You know you should take better care of yourself but somehow you never quite get there. What if the root of that isn’t a lack of willpower or the wrong diet plan? What if it’s a case of mistaken identity?
I was recently contemplating hidden sources of stress. Stressors we don’t really consider but have roots that invade every aspect of our lives. The Lord brought to my mind mistaken identity. Who we believe we are shapes every facet of our lives, including how we care for our bodies.
Do you know your true identity? Who God says you are? Not who the world says you are, not who your past says you are, but who your Creator says you are?
Who God Says You Are
Before we go any further, I want us to stop and really take this in. This is not a list of things we need to earn or achieve. This is who God says we already are:
Adopted
Delighted In
Loved
Known
Redeemed
Chosen
Conquerors
Created in the Image of God
A Masterpiece
Dwelling Place of the Holy Spirit
Free
Holy
Forgiven
And if that’s not enough, Jesus knew every sin you would ever commit and still chose to die for you.
So Why Don’t We Walk Like It?
If these truths are real, and they are, why do so many of us still struggle to live like we believe them? Mistaken identity is one of the most hidden sources of stress we face and understanding why is the first step to changing it.
We have a sinful nature. Even as believers we inherit a natural inclination toward self-centeredness and rebellion against God. This creates an ongoing internal battle between the flesh and the Holy Spirit.
We are often not discipled in biblical identity. Many of us came to faith and were never taught how to practically apply these truths to how we think, feel and live. Knowing something in our head and walking in it are two very different things.
We believe what we see, hear and say the most. In a world of constant noise, notifications and comparison, we are being shaped by what we consume far more than we realize. The voices we hear the most become the voices we believe the most: movies, news, TV shows, social media, friends and our own inner dialogue.
We live in a fallen world ruled by an enemy we vastly underestimate. This is not a popular topic but it is a critical one. We cannot understand why we struggle to walk in our identity without understanding who is actively working against us.
The Bible does not leave us guessing about who he is:
A roaring lion looking to devour
The deceiver of the world
A murderer from the beginning and the father of lies
The tempter
One who masquerades as an angel of light
The ruler of this world
He cannot take our soul but he can make us far less effective for the kingdom. His methods are intentional and strategic. I call them the 5 D’s:
Discouragement
Disconnection
Distraction
Discontentment
Deception
So if we know these truths why doesn’t that knowing change what we believe and what we do?
Why Doesn’t It Feel Real?
Have you ever wondered how you can know something is true intellectually and still not feel like it is? You can read the list we just went through, nod your head and believe every word, and still wake up the next morning feeling inadequate, overwhelmed and not enough. That is not a faith problem. That is a brain problem. God already knew that and he gave us a plan.
Here is what the science tells us:
Our brains run on autopilot up to 95% of the time [1]. That means the vast majority of our thoughts, reactions and beliefs are operating from patterns we have already established, many of them formed long before we understood our biblical identity.
Our brains have practiced believing the enemy’s lies thousands of times. Every time a lie goes unchallenged it gets stronger. Every time we agree with it, rehearse it or speak it out loud we are reinforcing a neural pathway that makes that lie feel like absolute truth.
Thoughts repeated become automatic. Your brain is wired for efficiency. Whatever you think most becomes what feels most true and real, even when it’s not.
Here is the good news and it is really good:
God designed your brain with the ability to change. Science calls it neuroplasticity. [2], God described this truth thousands of years before neuroscience had a word for it:
“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” Romans 12:2
We are not stuck. We can choose to create new stronger neural pathways by repeatedly filling our minds with truth and starving the lies of the attention they need to survive. Every time we speak truth, pray truth, read truth and surround ourselves with truth we are literally rewiring our brains to believe what God says about us.
That is living aligned with the Word and it’s your path to freedom. Want to go deeper on how stress affects your health? Watch this video series on stress and weight loss.
What Does This Have to Do With Your Weight?
Everything.
Have you ever wondered why you can’t stick to healthy habits no matter how hard you try? Behavior follows belief. This is the connection between mindset and weight loss that most programs completely miss. When we struggle to care for our bodies it is often not a willpower problem or a discipline problem. It is a belief problem. When we haven’t fully internalized our biblical identity and worth we are far more vulnerable to believing the enemy’s lies over God’s truth. And those lies show up directly in how we care for our bodies.
As women, when we don’t fully grasp who God says we are, we walk in ways He never intended. We move through our days insecure, looking for approval, striving, controlling and chasing achievement at the cost of our physical and mental health. We devalue our bodies and minimize the importance of honoring God by caring for them.
And without even realizing it we make choices that reflect that:
Sleep isn’t that important, I’ve got to get things done
I’ll start exercising tomorrow
I’ll start eating better on Monday
I don’t have time for hobbies, time in nature, or time with friends
I can volunteer for that, someone needs me
Accomplishing is my worth
Most weight loss programs hand you a meal plan and a workout routine and wonder why nothing sticks. What they miss is that the way we see ourselves drives every choice we make. When we don’t believe we are worth it, no plan in the world will change that.
These are not random choices. These are the footprints of mistaken identity. They are what it looks like when a woman does not yet fully believe she is worth caring for.
And the enemy knows exactly what he is doing.
The Cost of Walking Misaligned
Mistaken identity is not a small thing. It does not stay contained to one area of our lives. It seeps into everything. It exhausts us, distracts us and quietly robs us of our peace, our health and our effectiveness for the kingdom. And those around us feel it too.
When we build our identity on what the world says about us it is like building on sand that is always shifting and changing. We can never quite measure up because the moment we get close it shifts again. And we wonder why we are so discouraged and exhausted.
We were never meant to live that way.
How to Walk In Your Biblical Identity
The good news is we are not helpless in this. God has not left us without direction. Here is how we begin to close the gap between what we know and what we actually walk in every single day:
Know who we are biblically. This is the foundation. We cannot walk in an identity we do not know. Start with the list in this post. Read and speak it out loud daily.
Know the Word. We cannot spot a lie if we do not know the truth. The Bible is not just a devotional tool. It is our guide and defense. The more we are in it the harder it becomes for the enemy to deceive us.
Take our thoughts captive. 2 Corinthians 10:5. When a thought does not align with what God says about us it does not get to stay. Identify it, reject it and replace it with scriptural truth. This is not a one time event. It is a daily practice.
Surrender daily. James 4:7 tells us to submit to God and resist the enemy and he will flee. Daily surrender is not weakness. It is strategy.
Put on our armor daily. Ephesians 6:11-17. The armor of God is not decorative. It is functional and we need it every single day. Soldiers never go into battle without armor and neither should we.
Stay alert. The enemy is not taking days off and neither should we. Know his tactics. Recognize his patterns. When discouragement, disconnection, distraction, discontentment, or deception show up ask yourself who benefits from you believing this.
Set boundaries around what we see, hear, think and say. We believe what we are exposed to the most and God’s Word is clear about why this matters:
“But if the eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness.”- Matthew 6:23
“Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.”- Proverbs 4:23
“The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit.” - Proverbs 18:21.
What we expose ourselves to shapes our thoughts. What we think shapes what we believe. What we believe shapes who we become.
Surround ourselves with healthy community. Iron sharpens iron. (Proverbs 27:17) One of the enemy’s favorite tactics is isolation. When we are disconnected we are vulnerable. Find women who will speak truth over you, pray with you and walk alongside you.
Run to the Word not the world. The world will always have an opinion about who we are and what we are worth. Those opinions will always shift. The Word will not. Make it your first stop, not your last resort.
Practice daily. This is not one and done. Just as the lies were reinforced through repetition, truth must be reinforced the same way. Every day we choose to renew our minds, we are building a stronger foundation to stand on.
Be patient with yourself. We are unlearning thought patterns and ways of being that we have walked in for years. That does not change overnight. Grace over perfection, always.
It’s Time to Take Back the Ground
You were created for such a time as this.
Not a watered down, people pleasing, running on empty version of yourself. The full, purposeful, warrior version that God designed before you took your first breath.
It is time to:
Take back the ground the enemy has stolen
Stop agreeing with the lies of the enemy
Armor up and walk like the woman He says you are
We are more than conquerors. It is time we started living like it!
Want to learn more about how stress is affecting your health? Watch this video series on stress and weight loss and read this 3 part blog series.
“The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.” 2 Corinthians 10:4
Sources & Further Reading
On the Science of Habits and Autopilot Behavior
[1] BBC Science Focus: Brain Autopilot and Habits. sciencefocus.com/news/brain-autopilot-habits
Dispenza, J. The Art of Change. drjoedispenza.com/dr-joes-blog/the-art-of-change
Dispenza, J. Believing, Behaving, Becoming. drjoedispenza.com/dr-joes-blog/believing-behaving-becoming
On Neuroplasticity
[2] NIH StatPearls: Neuroplasticity. ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK557811
PMC Review: Brain Plasticity Throughout Life. pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11852462
