Let’s Talk About Identity

                Who are you?  If you tell me your name, that’s not who you are, but only that by which people know what to call you.  Who you are is so much greater than your name.  Along with your identity, you have an immense value placed upon your life.  In many instances, you don’t live up to what your identity is or what the value that’s been placed upon your life.  If you don’t know your value/identity, you will not have any problem engaging in actions that are far below you.  In that regard, you don’t know any better.  Actions (even thoughts) that I am talking about are involved lust, greed, hatred, envy, bitterness and lying.  How those are all played out is different, but one thing is consistent with them all: they are all below you; your value and your identity dictate that you are destined for greater things than that.  Let me talk about a few examples of “identity crisis”, how it’s resolved and Who did the resolving.

            To begin with, there was a man named Gideon (Judges 6:11-16) after the nation of Israel had conquered the Promised Land and Joshua had passed away.  There wasn’t much of a government at all, and the only expectation upon them was that they would love the Lord their God with all their heart, soul, strength and mind.  If they didn’t, God said calamity would befall them, and that’s exactly what had happened so many times.  In the time of Gideon, the Midianites laid claim to Israel and were basically bullies.  Gideon was threshing wheat in a whine press.  He was hiding.  Why would you thresh wheat in a place where you make wine?  For some time he was a coward, though his name meant “valiant (or mighty) warrior.”  He wasn’t living in accordance to what his true identity was.  He was too concerned that his family was the least of the tribe of Manasseh and the youngest of that family.  But God is greater than our own doubts of ourselves; He’s greater than whatever “limitations” we believe we have.  Since time began, God had in mind the great things that Gideon would accomplish.  So, when He called out to Gideon and proclaimed to him the obvious definition of his name, He already had in mind what Gideon would accomplish.  “Go in this your strength and deliver Israel from the hand of Midian.  Have I not sent you?”  Even while God would tell Gideon not to fear because “He was with him,” God spoke that in the strength that Gideon had; he had enough to lead Israel BECAUSE GOD GAVE IT TO HIM AND HE HAD IT SINCE THE DAY HE WAS BORN.

            Fast forward down Gideon’s life and we are able to witness the great things that he had done, because he was living within the identity God gave to him.  One of my favorite stories of Gideon was when God completely whittled down his army from 22,000 to 300 and defeated an army that looked “as numerous as locusts; and their camels were without number, as numerous as the sand on the seashore.”  In this instance, the reason God made such a large army small was to show (as if He didn’t do it enough already) that the power of man, the strength of man is worthless.  The only way to really attain victory is by the strength God gives.  In Him is victory.  More importantly, in Him is our identity.  How else are we to know who we are unless we know Him who created us?  The more we seek Him, the more we shall see what our identity is and how much value He has placed upon us.  (How is value determined?  By the buyer.  If you can follow where I’m leading this, you can see that there is such a high value placed upon us.  Even before the beginning of time, it was determined that He would die for us, to buy us back from the darkness—you can say He redeemed us.  Nobody can change that.  If I take a dollar, for example, and I stomp on it, spit on it and then begin to start yelling at it and degrading it, how it lost any of its worth?  Not one bit.  God determines our value and there is NOTHING that can change that.  Because He said so.)  Gideon didn’t get it perfectly; there were moments later in his life that you may wonder “what in the heck are you doing?”  However, in the victories of his life, he kept in mind the identity God had given him and knew how much he was valued by God.

            Far before Gideon was a man named Jacob.  His name meant “deceiver,” which that is what he was for some time.  If you read Genesis (chapters 25-50) you can see a transformation in his life.  Before an encounter with God (ch 32) he lived much as a deceiver.  He tricked his brother out of his birthright and stole the blessing his father would have given Esau.  This wasn’t necessarily a good thing that Jacob did; the Bible isn’t known as the “Good Book” because of the people in it, but because of the good God who orchestrated life for us.  One night, after he had met with his brother, to make right what had been wronged and to ask forgiveness from Jacob’s brother Esau, he wrestled with God.  Jacob didn’t necessarily know that it was God, the Bible references that it was a man he was wrestling.  But it was revealed to be something greater than a man because all he did was touch Jacob’s hip and it caused him to have a limp/impairment for the rest of his life.  To continue, a conversation that happened between Jacob and the “man” that night was Jacob pleading to be blessed.  What happened, was a name change.  He went from Jacob to Israel.  Israel means “wrestles/struggles with God.”  That name spoke to the identity of an entire nation as well as the man.  With the twelve sons Jacob had, and all the dealings in his life, it’s obvious that that name was true.  His life wasn’t bad, and it’s a great dilemma to have if you struggle with God.  Struggling with God isn’t a bad endeavor; in fact I would consider it one of the greatest blessings in life.  God only has good thoughts toward us and desires good for us.  The greatest good for us is Him and to struggle with God is to get to know the One who is Savior and Lord of all.

            The last man from the Bible I will talk about is Paul, formerly known was Saul.  This man is one of the sole reasons that the Gospel was spread so much through the Middle East and Europe around the first century A.D.  God had great things in mind for Paul, but before he was Paul, he was Saul, who persecuted the church.  He was zealous and the fire he had for attacking God’s church was frightening and second to none.  Saul means “asked for,” which is exactly what happened to him on the road to Damascus.  As he was on his way to persecute more people who loved Jesus, God knocked him off of his high horse (literally).  On that road, God asked for Saul’s life, to preach the Gospel to the Gentiles so that all may have the opportunity to come to a saving relationship with Jesus.  Later on we see that Saul had a name change as well, to Paul.  Paul means “small,” and if you read the epistles of Paul you can see how evident that all is.  Of all of the apostles, he easily could have been the most boastful.  He was a Pharisee, and was incredibly knowledgeable.  If he wanted, he could out-logic any person he came across.  But, with the identity that God gave him, and the understanding that living within the identity God gave you is greater than anything that any one person could come up with, he was okay with making himself “small” for the sake of the Gospel.  “For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified,” (1 Corinthians 2:2) and “Although I myself might have confidence even in the flesh.  If anyone else has a mind to put confidence in the flesh, I far more: circumcised the eighth day, of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the Law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to the righteousness which is in the Law, found blameless.  But whatever things were to gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ.  More than that I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish that I may gain Christ,” Philippians 4:3-8. 

            I want you to think of this: you’re not your mistakes; you’re not your failures; you’re not your past.  No you are far greater than that.  And the only way to know who you REALLY are is by seeking after the Lord.  He has all things for you; everything you need is bound of in the resurrected Savior, Jesus Christ.  “Seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence,” 2 Peter 1:3.  Do you want to know what your true identity is, and live in it?  The solution is found only in He who created you, only in He who loves you and He who died for you.  Seek Him to find your identity.  Seek Him to find your value, because it is much greater than you could ever imagine.
     To the foundation, this is WHO YOU ARE:  You are a beloved child of God, accepted among the beloved; your are chosen and accepted; you were created with such strengths and skills, placed within you by Creator-God, for such specific purposes that the only way for you to fulfill those purposes are to seek God.  You are cherished and loved more than what your heart and mind could ever comprehend; you are not a mistake, but were placed upon this earth for specific plans.  You are beautiful; you are strong.  You're not alone in your struggles; you're not alone in your triumphs.  Most importantly: YOU ARE LOVED.