by Jeff Bethke
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ.”(Ephesians 1:3-5)
Think for a second of all the different hats you wear on a consistent basis. What roles define you? For me, I am Jeff the employee, Jeff the athlete, Jeff the roommate, Jeff the son, Jeff the brother, etc. Maybe you’re Katie the hairdresser, Molly the dancer, Caitlin the daughter. Out of all those you thought of, which one if taken from you would hurt you the most? Which one would affect you if changed?
If it’s not the fact that you are a child of God, then you are probably not living how God intended you to live in His fullness. Because, truthfully speaking, being a child of God is the only one that can’t be taken from you. If we put our identity in anything but Christ we are putting our identity in something broken. It will hurt if I lose my job, or my family, or my ability to throw a baseball, but I know that God calls us to put our identity in Christ because we can never lose our status of being a child of the King!
The truth is though we all in one way or another have put our hope in something other than Christ. We have done what Romans 1:25 states by exchanging the truth about God for a lie, and worshiping and serving the created over the Creator. The base fundamental issue with society is in this verse. The reason we struggle, or have sin in our lives, or aren’t living how we were designed to be is because we have exchanged the truth about God for a lie and put our identity in created things. This problem lies at the root of all sin.
So, ultimately you don’t just have an insecurity problem, or a relationship-addiction problem, or a disordered eating problem, but most fundamentally you have an identity problem. You don’t know who you really are. Who you really are has nothing to do with you. It’s all about His performance, not yours; His victory, not yours; His efforts, not yours.
Tomorrow we will look at the three predominant areas most young ladies tend to put their identity in besides Jesus. But for now, ask yourself these questions:
What lies are you buying into? What if taken from you would you not be able to survive without?