Who are you?

"Define yourself radically as one beloved by God. This is the true self. Every other identity is illusion." -Brennan Manning

How do you identify yourself when someone asks who you are? Do you pull out a list of titles? Do you start describing the work you do or the people you are responsible for?

More importantly, how do you identify yourself deep in your soul?
Most importantly, how do you really believe that God identifies you?

When we miss who we are in God’s eyes, we churn up all kinds of trouble. We become people who care more about how we look, what people think of us, who we know, what we do. It can lead to fear, doubt, lack of compassion, loss of joy, confusion, hopelessness.

Most frightening is that when we lose sight of our true identity, we stop depending on the One who knows us best and loves us most.

We become dependent on our skills, possessions, and the people we know. Titles and success become who we are. Even the good work of ministry is tainted when we find our identity in what we do instead of in who we are to God.

So who are we really?


Think about all the titles you carry (spouse, parent, sibling…) which title means the most to you? Why? Now consider yourself as one beloved by God. How does identifying yourself in that way change how you depend on Jesus?

Responsibility as a believing parent

Let no Christian parents fall into the delusion that Sunday School is intended to ease them of their personal duties. The first and most natural condition of things is for Christian parents to train up their own children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. ~ Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Being freed from needing worldly success

It is a quest we've all pursued at one time or another, and some are still pursuing it. We all want to feel good about ourselves. We all want to think that we are okay. This is a fearful and anxious quest that only God's grace can free you from.

Here's what happens to us all-we seek horizontally(from other people) for the personal rest that we can only find vertically(from God) and so it never works.

Looking to other people for your inner sense of well-being is pointless. First, you will never be good enough to get the regular praise of others that you are seeking. You're going to mess up. You're going to disappoint. You will have a bad day. You'll lose your way. At some point, you'll say or do things you shouldn't. Add to this the fact that the people around you aren't typically interested in taking on the burden of being your personal Messiah. They don't want to live with the responsibility of having your identity in their hands. So looking to people for your inner self worth never works....

Now let's talk about success in the world. The peace that success gives is unreliable as well. Since you are less than perfect, whatever success you are able to achieve will soon be followed by failure of some kind. Then there is the fact that the buzz of success is short-lived. It isn't long before you're searching for the next "success" to keep you going.

That is why the reality that Jesus has become your righteousness is so precious. His grace has forever freed us from needing to prove our righteousness and our worth.

So we have to remind ourselves daily not to search horizontally for what we've already been given vertically.

"And the effect of righteousness will be peace, and the result of righteousness, quietness and trust forever." (Isaiah 32:17)

That righteousness is found in Christ alone.

2017

We find ourselves in a new year and I find myself feeling like nothing is new. I still struggle with sin, this world is still broken, I still feel like an alien in this world longing to go home to be with the Lord, I still feel attacked by the devil daily, my body still feels weak....
But as we start this new year of 2017, really it's OK that nothing is new because:

GOD is still the same King who rules and reigns

GOD is still the same Savior pouring out grace

We are still touched by his nearness, still moved by his promises, still strengthened by fresh mercies,

GOD still has forgiving grace

GOD still has transforming power

GOD still has tender love.....

A new year, but not new, that's ok, still Christ in me, still hope for glory. Do you have that hope?