Identity Crisis: Do You Know Who You Are?
FACT #1: You Have Been Given a New Identity.
One of the great crimes in our American culture today is identity theft. What is so cunning about this crime is the fact that a person can go for a long period of time and never know that their identity has been stolen. Do you know that the devil, the enemy of your soul you disguises himself as an angel of light, has tried to steal your identity? Do you know who and whose you really are? Do you know what happened the moment that you trusted God through Christ Jesus?
You received eternal life (John 5:24)
You were delivered from Satan’s domain and transferred into the kingdom of Christ. (Colossians 1:13)
Christ came to dwell in you. (Colossians 1:27)
You became a new creation. (2 Corinthians 5:17)
FACT #2: You Are a Saint and No Longer a Sinner.
Take a moment and just consider who you are. Meditate for a few seconds about how you truthfully view yourself. Do you see yourself as a sinner or as a redeemed saint? Or do you think of yourself as being something in between the two? We live out what we believe about ourselves—thus it is of vital importance that you know who you are in Christ. Is your understanding of your identity consistent with God’s idea about who you are?
Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. Colossians 3:9-10
FACT #3: Your Diagnosis is not Your Identity.
Do you often mentally label yourself? Do you harbor such thoughts as “I am stupid…I am hopeless…I am never going to change?” Another frequently heard label today is “I am a loser.” Regrettably many of us buy into these lies as permanent identities for ourselves. Often individuals live with these labels and think they can’t ever break free from them. Their “identity” gets stuck to such terms as “alcoholic” or “clinically depressed.” The truth is that these diagnoses are NOT who we are. It is time to remove our self-afflicted lies and labels and receive God’s truth about who He says we are. And God says we are the righteousness of God in Christ!
Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God. John 1:12-13
