Who are you?
Think about it for a moment.
What invisible labels are you wearing - right now, this very minute - that you have written on yourself or someone has written over you?
Dumb. Loser. Invisible. Not enough. Freak. Idiot. Stupid. Ugly. Mistake. Failure. Worthless.
It’s pretty difficult to be sure of yourself and who you are when those labels keep stacking up and are rolling around in your head.
But how can we know any different if we don’t know what TRUTH says about us?
Psalm 100:3 “Know that the Lord, He is God; it is He who has made us, and not we ourselves; we are His people and the sheep of His pasture.”
It says “KNOW that the Lord, HE is God…”
To know our true identity, who we are at the very core of ourselves is first to know who God is.
“It is He who has made us and not we ourselves; WE. ARE. HIS. PEOPLE…”
By knowing who God is - it leads us to understand who WE are in Him.
There’s a story about a man named Barabbas.
He was in prison awaiting his death sentence. He was a bad dude. He did wrong things.
When Jesus was brought by His accusers to Pontius Pilate, the crowd roared to crucify Jesus. “Give us anyone else. Anyone else BUT Jesus.”
So Barabbas was chosen by the crowd, over Jesus Christ whom the accusers had praised just that week prior.
Out of all the people who deserved death - it was Barabbas.
Out of anyone, this guy was unworthy at a second chance.
He didn’t do anything to merit mercy.
But instead of getting his rightful judgment, Jesus stepped in his place.
He stepped in his place as condemned. He took the beating that was meant for him.
Jesus, an innocent Man was handed over in place of the guilty that day.
Barabbas, who deserved death, was given life.
Our identity is no longer like Barabbas: condemned to die. But because Jesus stepped in our place, He gives us LIFE!
John 10 says “I have come that they may have life abundantly!”
But how can we know who we are until we know WHOSE we are?
HOW GOD SEES US: Our new identity
Do you know who God is? Do you know that He is everlasting? Eternal?
He has no beginning and no end.
He is the First and the Last.
The Alpha, the Omega.
He is the Creator of the heavens and the earth.
He formed your inward parts in your mother’s womb.
He is the Triune God. Father Son and Holy Spirit.
Uncontainable. All-powerful.
God is everlasting.
Sit on that for a minute.
Forever. Eternal. Infinite. Boundless. No end.
GOD IS EVERLASTING.
And God is love. 1 John 4
So if God is everlasting and God is love, then God - in His everlasting love FOR YOU -
never began to love you but always has loved you.
His love for you didn’t have a start date. There’s nothing you could do more or less that would take His love away from you.
And just as He never started to love,
He
cannot
cease to love.
You are loved and chosen.
YOU ARE LOVED AND CHOSEN BY THE KING OF KINGS
And
“Not even death or life, angels or rulers, things present or things to come, hostile powers, height or depth, or any other created thing will have the power to separate us from the love of God.”
You are God’s beloved. THAT is your identity.
Romans 5:8 says that “God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
Not WHEN we were good people.
Not AFTER we were saved.
Not BECAUSE we did good things.
It says WHILE we were STILL SINNERS!
When Jesus was on the cross - He had YOU on His mind. And He didn’t swipe right and think, NAH I’m not gonna die for them. They ugly. They’re covered in sin.
NOPE! He looked on you with love and willingly died so that you would live with Him in eternity.
Take that satan! No matter what you do, no matter what you’ve done - HE STILL WOULD HAVE DIED FOR YOU.
You may say…
But I messed up…HE LOVES YOU.
You don’t know what I did in the secrecy of my room just last night…HE LOVES YOU.
You don’t know the thoughts I have…HE LOVES YOU.
You don’t know the mean things I said to that kid…HE LOVES YOU.
Just like He loved Barabbas. Just like He loved His accusers.
He loves YOU
and He loves ME.
You were worth the life of Jesus. THAT is how valuable you are to Him. And what God says about you can’t be taken away.
You are loved.
Jeremiah 31:3 “I have loved you with an everlasting love.”
You are not alone.
Matthew 28:20 “I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
You are chosen.
John 15:16 “I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit.”
You are a child of God.
1 John 3:1 “Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God!”
You are a new creation.
2 Corinthians 5:17 “If anyone is in Christ, they are new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.”
You are forgiven.
1 John 1:9 “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
You have purpose.
Jeremiah 29:11 “For I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.”
You are precious.
Isaiah 43:4 “Since you were precious in My sight, you have been honored, and I have loved you.”
You are not a mistake.
“Jeremiah 1:5 “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart.”
So what does it look like to WALK in OUR NEW IDENTITY?
We need to take inventory of the thoughts going on in our minds - do they align with what God says about you?
Your identity is a chosen and loved child of God. Those of us who belong to God are God’s people. We are chosen and loved by Him - THAT is our true identity.
So now that we know we are loved and chosen and accepted by God, are we to just go about living our lives how we want to? NO!
We are to live in the light as He is in the light. As it says in John 8 “He who follows me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.”
We need to be watchful of what we allow in, understanding that our bodies are temples intended to be filled with the Spirit and not useless sins.
1 Corinthians 6 says “Don’t you know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, who you have from God, and you are not your own?”
Romans 12 “Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”
So identity. Psalm 100:3
We now know who God is: LOVE.
We now know how He sees us: LOVED
And we now know how to walk in our new identity.
Are you ready to take off those lying labels and stand in your true identity in Christ?
Can you accept that you are loved?
You are chosen.
You are HIS.
THAT is your identity.
It’s time to walk in it.
~ Kissy Black
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