Identity.

"Who am I?"


This has been a question always lingering deep inside me. Yeah, yeah, I know... "You can be whoever you want to be!"........ I tried that. A lot. 

• The good kid.
• The smart kid.
• The "I'm going to go to college and be successful" guy.
• The spontaneous guy.
• The wild-fun-drunk guy.
• The gay guy.
• The "no one can tell me who I am" guy.

My perception of who I was changed many times from the time I was a kid until young adulthood. Often, who I wanted to be was influenced by who I was around. My ever changing desires of who I wanted to be were ultimately controlled by the central desire to be accepted and esteemed by other people.


Every identity change would result in failure. As soon as I would start to think "this is who I am!", some form of rejection would tear down the image I had created of myself. But I thank God for this. I thank God that I was not ever successful in defining myself. Because the people who are successful in defining their identity are successful in doing so only because they are under the wrath of God. They are so blinded by their self-exalting desire to be accepted in the world that they are oblivious to their true identity. God has simply let them go their own way (which may sound good, until you realize our own way ends in death).

The can't see, through the haze of their self-righteousness, the horrific truth about who they really are.


They do not see that they are a God-loathing sinner heading full speed toward an eternity under His wrath. This is the true identity of all humanity. It is a frightening reality to stumble upon, but only when we come into a full realization of the dangerous position we are in can we finally see the beauty in Jesus Christ. The hope in Jesus. 


When we give our lives to the Son, we attain an unchangeable identity as adopted children of God. We no longer remain the objects of God's wrath, but are transformed into objects of God's steadfast love and unwavering grace. 


We don't have to spend any more time endlessly working to define ourselves. We are defined by Another.


No longer do we have to worry about how other people voice their opinion about us. We only listen to one Person's voice.

Stop letting your feelings and other people shape your view of who you are. You will continually walk in self-pity and weakness if you choose to believe lies like:


You're pathetic.
You're a coward.
You're nothing.
You'll never change.
You're weak. 


Listen rather to the TRUTH! Jesus bore the identity of your wickedness so that you could bear the identity of  His righteousness. 


You are holy! 
You are blameless! 
You are strong!
You have been predestined for glory!
You are the righteousness of God! 


This is the promise of God to every believer in Christ. Stop believing the lies, start believing God and become who YOU ALREADY ARE in Jesus.


"But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, "Abba! Father!" So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God."- Galatians 4:4-7


"But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation,a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy."- 1 Peter 2:9-10


"For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them."- Ephesians 2:10