Don't Fall Victim to Identity Theft

I was at the store when my red flags started going up.

I had been shopping for my son's birthday with all of my kids--who were also shopping for his birthday. After a grueling hour or more of this trip, decisions were made and we were at the check-out stand. When everything was totaled up, I swiped my debit card and entered my PIN. The card wouldn't go through. I was completely perplexed. We tried to run it again. It still didn't work. I knew I had funds available, and beyond that, I have overdraft protection, so I was a bit concerned.

Upon returning home, I had a couple of voice messages from the fraud department of my bank. I looked up my bank account online and discovered an erroneous charge hitting my account. I quickly hushed my six kids and dialed the 800 number from the message. They listed several other charges that had tried to go through my account besides the one I saw. *Groan.*

Luckily, they are really great about taking care of things like this and I don't think there will be any lingering effects--other than being without my debit card for a week. I have a small suspicion about what happened, which I will be further investigating.

I want to address a more dangerous form of identity theft, one that can have eternal implications: Do YOU know WHO you are?

There are so many mixed messages in the world that can leave us wondering or confused about who we are and who it is we are meant to become. The adversary works hard to distort our view of ourselves, mask ourselves with things that hide our true beauty, damage our perceptions. I see people every day who are seeking happiness, wandering aimlessly, never really finding what they are looking for in life.

Satan wants us to forget that we are children of God. He wants to cover our eyes, shield our minds, infiltrate our souls and remove any memory or feeling of who we are and where we are from. We need to work hard to not get trapped in this "spiritual amnesia." Don't let Satan steal your spiritual identity.

As with identity theft, we have to safeguard ourselves from spiritual identity theft. Necessary actions include frequent (or constant) prayer, daily scripture study, regular worship/church attendance and anything else that will strengthen you spiritually.

If you do not yet know who you are spiritually, I hope that you will seek that out--pray, study and ponder--and gain that knowledge for yourself. God does loves us, He answers our prayers, and He wants us to return home to him again. He knows us as individuals. Always remember that. Continually seek to know it without a doubt.

Protect your identity.

© Wendy 2013