Testimony: “A New Face in the Mirror” by Sara Gipson

^“It’s in Christ that we find out who we are and what we are living for. Long before we first heard of Christ and got our hopes up, he had his eye on us, had designs on us for glorious living, part of the overall purpose he is working out in everything and everyone.”

Ephesians 1:11-12 (The Message)

About 3 years ago, I woke up to a girl staring back at me in the mirror who had given her heart to a world that had given her nothing back in return. She had lived life for herself, and was completely exhausted by trying to be good enough and attempting to make herself acceptable to those around her. She wanted to be a “good person”, but instead was a slave to the opinions of man and did not realize what a treasure and jewel she was. In 2012, I found myself at the darkest moment in my life, and I was officially at rock bottom. I stared at myself back in that mirror and realized that I had been running from God for quite some time. But friends, that very place is where I met God for the first time, truly. I had spent 21 years of my life trying to heal myself, fix myself, repair what had been broken and trampled upon. It wasn’t that I was a bad girl, but I was spiritually dead. It wasn’t that I needed repair- I needed to be made brand new. I needed to be resurrected.

It is in our brokenness that God’s whisper to our hearts becomes a loud shout. We hear him best when the voice of our pride and selfish agenda becomes quiet. God poured down sweet mercy over me from Heaven and took me on the most exciting journey of my life. For the past three years, I have woken up to a girl who looks different than she did the way before. Each morning has been one that I wake up to new mercies. Each day has been one of God shedding off my old identity of who I used to be and letting him clothe me in His righteousness. Each day, another layer of the old has been removed and another layer of the new has been ever so delicately placed on identity. Each day, the one who created me and pursued me transformed the image of the girl I saw in the mirror. Being made new is not a position, a lifestyle, or a weekly church visit. It is an encounter with the Cross, it is a moment where God peels the scales off our eyes and allows us to see glory of God’s grace and love for us. Here’s the thing: for 21 years I ran after things and people that I thought would make me satisfied in this life. But the thing is, none of those things offer us something new, they only take and never give anything in return. Out of all the things I chased after in this life, Grace was the one thing that gave me something new in return. Grace was the one thing that never gave up on me. Grace let me see. Grace did not fix me. Grace did not upgrade me. Grace did not repair me. Grace made me new, gave me a new citizenship, and forever freed the girl who was a slave to what people thought about her. When we look to anything other than the name of Jesus to give us the answers we are so desperately looking for, we end up disappointed every single time. The reality is, we all do a terrible job of trying to heal ourselves and sort out the chaos and confusion of our own lives when we were never the ones in control in the first place. Jesus came behind me as I stared at myself in that mirror and said “How about I change what you see? How about you let me show you who you really are?”

The past three years have been my own little extreme makeover. I had worn rags of shame, sin, impurity, and unforgiveness for so long, but God gave me a new wardrobe of righteousness, holiness, and a beauty that goes beyond skin deep. Today I wake up and see a girl in the mirror who I hardly recognize compared to the one I used to see staring back at me emotionless and empty. I didn’t wake up to a girl who had it all together; I woke up to a girl who is not the one she once was. God’s hand plucked me out of darkness, dusted me off, and threw me into a life of light and abundance. Jesus said that whoever believed in Him would have rivers of living water running through her, and every day I feel the spring of love and grace churning in my life. A river of hope is pouring through me constantly.

Ephesians 6 says that long before I even acknowledged Him, He was writing a love story for me and had plans for glorious living despite the fact that I was undeserving. However, it’s one thing to be made new and to find out who we are and what we are living for; it is another to make the choice to walk that out every day and truly live as if we are new. On this journey, God is showing me how day 500 is just as important as day 1. We have to continually choose to walk in that new identity and daily allow God to shed off the old. We have to choose daily to not be conformed to the pattern of this world, but instead allow ourselves to be transformed in His presence. Today, I am still on that journey of having the girl in the mirror renewed until I see Him face to face. I sit on a mound of answered prayers and fulfilled promises. Today, I know who the woman God called me to be is, and the more I learn about Him the more He shows me what my purpose for the Kingdom is during my brief time here on Earth. On my best days and on my worst days – God breathes new things and new grace over me. He keeps his eye on me, and works out his overall purpose. So here I am, looking into the mirror at a daughter of God who is living in the middle of the most precious love story she has ever known.

About the Author: Sara Gipson

Sara is originally from Muscle Shoals, Alabama, and has been a resident of Huntsville for two and a half years. Sara graduated from the University of North Alabama in 2013 and will soon be a graduate of The Highlands College (in May 2016). She is a member of Church of the Highlands and works as government contractor in Foreign Military Sales on Redstone Arsenal.

Tags: God In Our City, Huntsville, made new, Our City On A Hill, Sara Gipson, testimony