Identity

Who are you? What defines you? For some they might say  their job or their what they spend most of their time doing. But our true identity is found in Christ. We are NOT what other people say about us. We ARE what God says about us. We are NOT how the world sees us. We ARE how God sees us. I was blessed enough to have been raised in a Christian home where my parents taught me that who I am is in God. That doesn't mean I always stayed true to that. I suffered for a time thinking I was how others saw me. That was the enemy. Knowing who you are in Christ takes time. It doesn't happen over night. Because of our sinful nature we don't automatically see ourselves as God sees us. We see a clouded version usually interfered by satan. We can see ourselves this messed up way even because of people we love and our close to us. They may not even mean to mess with you, but satan can use the craziest things against us. Say someone tells you your useless, if your are so caught up in what other people see in you, you may think I am useless and start to act that way!! If your identity is in Jesus Christ someone can tell you that and you may think, I may not be helpful in a certain area, but God has purpose for me and to him I am precious and useful in ways that he sees and you don't. (Jeremiah 29:11) If you read the bible Jesus claims wonderful things over us, we need to start believing them. We are a child of the KING! We should care what the KING thinks most!

Jeremiah 1:5
Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.

1 Peter 2:9
But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light.

Galatians 3:27-38
for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

To me this last verse says God doesn't look at the outward. He is looking inwardly at us. We are all God's children. You are not defined by even being boy or girl to God. You are his child, his precious child and he claims the truth over you, not the lies of the enemy. So if you feel clouded, come to God and he will give you purpose and identity! Let what God thinks about you resinate in your mind, not what others think. And if you do that, you will start walking around a lot differently :) I know this from experience :) I read an inspiring story about a girl who got sucked into an airplane propeller and she survived but had to have a fake arm and eye. She had a scar on her face and half her head was shaved because of the procedures at the hospital. She said at first it was hard because she was what her outward appearance was. (Usually all put together, fashionable) Then she started learning that God gave her identity, that all this outwardness was nothing to him, but it was her beautiful spirit! It showed me to really love myself for what God sees in me not the world.

prayer:
God you are so good, that you call us your sons and daughters. That we get the privilege of calling you are Father. Help us to know that we find who we are in you, and you alone. Let every word that is not of you that other people say or put on us fall to the ground and go to hell where it belongs. Let us believe the truth that you write about us in your word.
AMEN!!