Who Are You?

Who are you? When someone asks you that question, how do you answer?

Do you reply with your job title, relationship status, position in your community, as a mom, dad, gender identity, or…? In some instances, any one of those descriptors may be appropriate, but as Christians, it is to our detriment not to accept, believe, and fully embrace our identity in Jesus as our core identity.

I have been a Christian since I was 16 years old. I did far worse things after I became a Christian than I had before becoming a Christian, and it all came down to who I believed I was. I knew what the Bible said God thought about me, but instead of believing that, I believed my inner thoughts, feelings, and personal experiences.

I grew up believing I was not enough and not worthy or valued. For decades, I tried getting my worth and identity from my absent dad, family, friendships, relationships, work, opinions of others, etc. It was a never ending cycle of trying to be important enough, accepted enough, smart enough, cool enough, etc.

I wandered into many situations looking for value, intimacy, and worth, and if they didn’t lead to sin, these situations certainly led to disappointment and confusion as to why I still felt the way I did.

None of these efforts to find worth and identity externally worked for very long because our worth and value is not something we can get from outside of ourselves.

Our worth, value and identity comes from God. He created every one of us humans and that is the reason we are valuable, worthwhile and have an immutable identity.

As Christians, God calls us His children (John 1:12, Romans 8:17), family (Ephesians 1:5), friends (John 15:15), royal priests (1 Peter 2:9), Christ’s ambassadors (2 Corinthians 5:20), complete (Colossians 2:10), and without fault (Ephesians 1:4). What an honor and responsibility! Praise the Lord! He has given us a new identity in Christ!

When we stop believing the lies that we tell ourselves about who we are, we will be free and available to fully embrace His love, plan, and will for our lives. We will no longer be held back by fear, inability, lack of courage, insecurity, or anything that holds us back. What finally brought me to a place of accepting who I was in Christ was other people knowing the terrible things I did and still accepting me. That turning point for me happened in my 50s! I wasted so much time not believing what the God of the universe plainly says about me in His word because I was too caught up how I felt and the shame that tries to keep all of us down.

I urge you Christian, to join me on this journey of discovering who we are in Christ and allowing the truth to set you free from the bondage of shame, guilt, confusion, and ineffective living.