Who Are You?

It’s National Siblings Day!  Since I was 4, I’ve been blessed with an awesome brother.  Soon, though, I will be blessed with four step sisters!  My dad is recently engaged, so it’s an exciting time for our family.  I honestly never thought that I would take on the title of “step-sister” or “step-daughter,” but I can also honestly say that I’m super excited about it!  I will be the oldest of 6 children (cue the fun but crazy family get togethers!)!

As I thought about taking on the role of step-sister and step-daughter, it led me to think about our identities.  We can often place our identities in our jobs, our family, our athletics, etc.  However, our identities on this earth are ever changing, and sometimes change out of nowhere, whether we like it or not.  We can go from taken to single, from engaged to married, from employed to unemployed, from fired to hired, all in the matter of minutes.

Not all of our earthly identities are bad.  For example, being a daughter (or step daughter!) is an awesome thing!  Where we start to have problems is when we place our confidence and everything that we are in these earthly identities (in fact, Paul tells us in Philippians 3:3-6 that we should not put confidence in the flesh).  There are so, so many issues that arise in our lives when we put our confidence in our earthly identities.  I’ve been guilty of finding my identity in being a wife and a mom.  On days when I loved my husband well, was patient with my children, and kept my house fairly clean, I felt pretty good about myself.  When we feel good about our earthly identities, it can lead to pride, which does not please the heart of God.  On days when I wasn’t very loving to my husband, lost my patience with my children, and my house was a wreck, I felt down on myself and would beat myself up.  Having this lack of joy and feeling of condemnation doesn’t please the heart of God either.

Our earthly identities are not permanent.  They can come and go.  Sometimes we welcome this change, and other times this change is difficult.  Sometimes we know this change is coming, and sometimes it catches us off guard.  But friends, if you are in Christ, you have an eternal identity in Him that we can put our total confidence in that will never ever change.  Let’s look at Ephesians 1-3 and find out who we are in Christ:

• We are blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places by Jesus Christ (Ephesians 1:3).
• We are chosen in Jesus before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before Him (Ephesians 1:4).
• We were predestined by Jesus to be adopted to Him as His children (Ephesians 1:5).
• We were redeemed and forgiven by Jesus’ blood, according to the riches of His grace (Ephesians 1:7).
• Jesus has lavished His grace on us.  (Ephesians 1:8).
• Jesus has made known to us the mystery of His will (Ephesians 1:9).
• We are given an inheritance in Jesus (Ephesians 1:10).
• We are sealed with the promise of the Holy Spirit who guarantees our inheritance (Ephesians 1:13-14).
• We are made alive with Christ and saved by grace (Ephesians 2:5).
• We are raised up with Jesus and seated with Him in the heavenly places (Ephesians 2:6).
• Jesus will show us the immeasurable riches of His grace in kindness (Ephesians 2:7).
• We are saved by grace through faith.  It’s God’s gift to us!  (Ephesians 2:8).
• We are Jesus’ workmanship, created in Christ to do good works that God prepared for us in advance (Ephesians 2:10).
• We have been brought near to God by Jesus’ blood (Ephesians 2:13).
• We have access through Jesus in one Spirit to the Father (Ephesians 2:18).
• We are citizens of God’s household (Ephesians 2:19).

And yall!!!  That’s just scratching the surface.  Ephesians 1-3 is all about who we are in Jesus.  I encourage you to read it for yourself.  But if you aren’t practically jumping out of your seat after reading all of that, you might want to check your pulse!!

So, yes, our earthly identities are always changing, but who we are in Christ will never ever change!  We are HIS forever!  Stop placing your worth in earthly things.  Earthly things will change and fail us.  Place your worth in Christ.  He will never fail us, and who we are in Him will always remain the same.

Now, obviously, after we grasp hold of who we are in Christ,  it should change how we live.  That’s a whole other post in itself, but I strongly encourage you to go read Ephesians 4-6.   Paul talks about what we are supposed to do because of who we are in Christ.

So… Teacher.  Mom.  Dad.  Co-worker.  Friend.  Step sister.  Wife.  Single.  Unemployed.  Accountant.  Engineer.  Etc, etc, etc.  Whoever you are, that’s not really who you are.  If you are in Christ, you are adopted, redeemed, forgiven, SAVED BY GRACE, etc. etc. etc.!!  Rejoice in that today!  Put your identity there today!!