- As a whole, we don’t own our own identity. We often tend to put it into the hands of someone else: a significant other, the way you want people to view you, your children, ideals, etc.
- Beth Moore’s book So Long Insecurity she says “why would we put our self-worth into the hands of someone who’s oblivious to the power they have over us?”
- Giving other people or ideals the power of owning your identity puts it in a delicate state, where someone who doesn’t know they hold it (or worse still, they do know and don’t care for it well) can easily shatter it and walk away leaving you to pick up the pieces.
- Other times our identity is focused on things that we are not.
- “I’m not as bad as them” or “I refuse to be like this”
- This leaves us to constantly justify, compare, and empty ourselves instead of focusing on the good and improving what needs to be worked on.
- When we base our identity on comparing, we’re never seeing the full picture.
- So many times we focus our identity on where we feel inadequate.
- One area that I personally struggle with is beauty.
- God does not set a standard of beauty on us, He sets us to be His.
- When we do this, we open ourselves up to two traps:
- Envy: we become jealous of those people that have what we want.
- Idols: we admire, focus, or worship things in our lives in areas that should be dedicated to God.
- Ask yourself: is there something that if lost, we would lose our identity? A relationship, job, talent, or hobby.
- One area that I personally struggle with is beauty.
- A person who lost everything in one second and had to redefine her identity is Joni Eareckson Tada.
- In her biography Joni: An Unforgettable Story she writes: “But that’s the same for everyone if we let society determine our value,” Steve explained as he sat down on the piano bench. “We always lose when we evaluate ourselves according to someone else’s ideas or standards. And there are as many standards as there are people. A jock measure you by your athletic ability, a student by your brains, a steady by your looks. It’s a losing battle,” he said, striking a sour piano chord for added emphasis. “We have to forget about what people say or think and recognize that God’s values are the only important ones.”
- It is so important for us to remember the ist of what we are not defined by.
- 1. Labels.
- Some labels we proudly claim (mom, girl boss, wife, crunchy, etc.)
- Some are given to us (loser, nerd, jock, popular)
- These often affect decisions we make as we try to live up to or dispute them.
- 2. What you consume.
- The things we use to occupy your mind affect the way you think and act either positively or negatively. This can be music, books, movies, culture, and art. These affect our emotions, reactions, hopes, ambitions, and we can get trapped into ideals that aren’t even ours to begin with.
- 3. Comparison.
- This can either be when you feel “less than” or “superior to.” Whether you are crashing in despair of “not enough,” caught in the lie to superiority, or dealing with the fallout of our pride taking the best from us- it is not who we are or how we are truly defined.
- 4. Defined by others.
- You are not defined by people’s expectations of you.
- You are not what the media thinks you should be.
- 1. Labels.
- You do not need to be afraid of not being enough.
- 1 John 3:1- See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.
- Why do I struggle so much with caring that the world knows me? If I am claimed as a child of God, why do I care if the world doesn’t recognize or value me for the person I am?
- Satan is constantly watching for whatever he can to drag us away from the path toward God. (Beware the Prowling Lion)
- John 10:10- The thief comes only in order to steal, kill, and destroy.
- Why do I struggle so much with caring that the world knows me? If I am claimed as a child of God, why do I care if the world doesn’t recognize or value me for the person I am?
- 1 John 3:1- See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.
- The book Identity Theft describes three main categories that Satan attacks our identity.
- 1. Using the world: when we want to conform.
- 2. Using the flesh: when we want to glorify ourselves instead of God.
- 3. Using shame: he traps us with the chains of past so we forget that we are free in Jesus.
- We often look at ourselves and think “I’m not enough.” But we’re looking in the wrong spot. JESUS is enough, and that’s what matters. One of the biggest and best parts about finding our identity in Christ is that he is the one thing we just can never lose. If our identity is protected and defined by him, it can never fall into identity theft!
- So now we’ve started to figure out what we’re not. So what are we?
- 1 Peter 2:9-10- But you are not like that, for you are a chosen people. You are royal priests, a holy nation, God’s very own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light. “Once you had no identity as a people; now you are God’s people. Once you received no mercy; now you have received God’s mercy.”
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