Will God or the World Define You?
As Christians, believers in The Way, people of faith in Christ, what should we be internalizing, acknowledging, and consistently living out as true of ourselves? What should be the guiding lights of our hearts, souls, and minds? Identity is defined by Oxford Languages as “the fact of being who or what a person or thing is.” It is the foundation of an individual’s personhood. Our perception of our identity is what we each believe to be true about ourselves, and it manifests itself in our thoughts and actions. While everyone is unique, a Christian’s core beliefs about who they are—their identity—should reflect God’s intentions and truths. The world is constantly trying to define you in ways contrary to God’s design. Are you letting it?
As Christianity fades from the forefront of American society and culture struggles from its defiance of God, confusion, chaos, and turmoil lie ahead. It is easily conceivable that we are approaching end times although it is hard to know for certain. If you have not been taking being a Christian seriously and whole-heartedly, it’s time to start! God did not instruct us to be conformists with the world. We are not created to be apathetic or fearful. If we are not swimming against the tide of worldly information flowing at us and fighting for the truth based on our Christian identity and beliefs, our minds, hearts, and souls will be deceived and carried away in unwanted, worldly, and soul damaging ways.
To become a Christian is to experience a miracle through the grace of God. It is the pinnacle of life. Be grateful! God’s love provides each Christian with a humbling, unchangeable, and life defining personal value and worth, and if we seek it, He reveals to each of us, through His grace, our true, God given, biblically described identity. We need not live in fear or confusion, or without direction and meaning. Take to heart who God wants you to be and experience the life-altering freedom His design can provide. Along with a knowledge and trust of Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, and a constant gazing upon God, our identity, what God says is meant to be true of us, should form the foundation to our lives, and shape everything about us. Is that true for you?
God’s story of creating a family to live with Him through eternity is the world’s true story and as part of that story He wants our hearts and affections directed toward Him. His story is infinite in significance, far reaching and deep in meaning, and more appealing than any individual story or stories that a person can craft on their own. While our individual stories are important because God created us to have them, and they play a significant part in His larger story, those stories are to be formed by, guided by, and lived out through the identity God intends for us. The true Christian life, one fully lived according to God’s ways and in His truths, is challenging, exciting, fulfilling, and liberating, just as God designed it to be.
