Who Am I Really?

Welcome to Identity in Christ week. I feel like this is a question I am constantly asking myself. Who am I? What is my purpose? The bible has a lot to say about this and I have been learning a bunch about the lies I have been believing about myself and the truth, the way God sees me.

As people in this society we are constantly are giving and receiving messages about who we are and who others are. This could be something someone told you or even an event in our lives. As I think about the times where God really broke down my identity to make me trust Him more, one in particular comes to mind. When I was a sophomore in high school I got a varsity suit. I was then devistated that as a Junior I was denied one at the beginning of the season. It felt like everything I ever knew about myself was untrue. One of the things that God really taught me during this time was that I was more than just basketball, infact I wasn't basketball at all. Basketball became something I enjoyed rather than something that defined me.

Basketball was something that had made me feel good about myself but I think the false identities that make us feel bad about ourselves are even worse. In high school I wasn't very well excepted. I had one good friend but was being left out of things often. These events allowed satan to tell me lies like: You're not lovable, you are pretty enough, you aren't someone people like to spend time with. Last fall at Main Event confrence in Kansas City I identified these as lies that I still have trouble combatting. I can see how they effect me and still wrestle with them in my friendships which can make me insecure at times.

One of the things I've really been learning this week is just how to look only at who God says I am. God doesn't want us to find pride or sadness in anything that people tell us but rely on what He says as truth. What is really cool is that we have been given the fullness of Christ's identity when we accepted His gift of salvation. For bible study this week we looked at Ephesians 2. We made a list of who we were before Christ and now after.

Before: dead in transgressions & sin, following the world, disobedient, objects of wrath (ouch!), separate from Christ, excluded, without hope, without God and LOVED.

After: alive, receivers of Grace, God's workmanship, citizens of God's people, members of God's household, dwelling in the Spirit of God, and LOVED.

It's sweet that this is how God sees us every day! I can't wait until Heaven and my experience of who I am is the same with the way God knows me.

I think a good way to show you what I've learned this week is for you to watch this video. A couple of the team leaders I work with were talking uabout it and so I showed it to my girls as part of our bible study last night. Please watch it. Oh and one last thing. I just found out today that one of our staff was diagnoised with breast cancer and is having surgery on the 14th. They found it extremely early and she is having a mastectomy and they don't even think she will need any other treatment so praise God for that, but just be praying for fast recovery for Patty would be wonderful!

Video: You are Special