Identity. If you were to take some time to reflect on what influences your identity — or your perception of what your identity is — you might find it to be amusing, surprising, perhaps even convicting.
Having grown up in a Christian home, surrounded by Christian relatives, church family and friends, I am quite familiar with the concept of my “identity in Christ”. It is a well-known, somewhat exhausted topic. And yet, I find I am still in need of the reminder of where my identity comes from.
A thought that has recently occurred to me is that my identity is not based on how I feel.
As a self-proclaimed hopeless romantic, feelings are often the driving force behind decisions I make, how I react to my circumstances, and how I respond to people. Feelings are not a bad thing; however, they sometimes usurp a position of authority in my way of thinking that is not rightfully theirs.
Feelings need to be subject to truth. And when it comes to identity, truth is crucial.
I find the need to remind myself that my identity is what Jesus says I am, not how I feel about myself.
I feel guilty. He says that I am forgiven.
I feel weighed down with past mistakes and failures. He says that all the things I have ever done wrong are no longer going to be held against me by God.
I feel unloved. He says that He loves me and died to have a relationship with me.
I feel defeated. He says that I am “more than a conqueror” in Him.
I feel distant from God. He says that I am IN HIM, and that I get to be right beside God’s throne because I am in Jesus!
No matter how I feel, God is always right. His truth is superior to my feelings.
Whether I feel it or not, this is where my identity comes from. It comes from the perfect, holy mind and heart of an unchanging God. His mind never changes. And everything that He says, everything He declares, is absolute Truth.
And because my identity comes from a God who never changes, that means that my identity also never changes.
In this truth I must immerse myself: that I am always loved, forgiven, cleansed, and a child of God in Christ Jesus.
In your hearts enthrone Him; there let Him subdue
all that is not holy, all that is not true.
Look to Him, your Savior, in temptations’ hour;
let His will enfold you in its light and power.
~ Caroline M. Noel ~
songs of stippled stardust 