Identity in Christ

One of the goals I have for PNP is to show and remind people of their worth and beauty in Christ. I want to share my heart behind that with you in this blog today, starting with Scripture:

“For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. ” Psalm 139:13-14 ESV

The Lord has created each and every one of us uniquely and for His purpose. We are created in God’s image: His likeness!

Identity is a divisive topic in our culture, so why should we look anywhere but the unchanging truth of God’s Word for answers?

If we look to the world to tell us who to be, we will never be satisfied.

The world will tell you to follow your truth and that whatever you feel is right. That is a shaky, unstable ground to place your foundation.

Don’t listen to what the society is shouting down at you. They’re lying to you. All they want is power over you and how you think/what you believe.

You are not your feelings. Emotions and circumstances constantly change, but God doesn’t.

“Every way of a man is right in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the heart.” Proverbs 21:2 ESV

“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” Hebrews 13:8 ESV

When we look to the Bible and what God says about our identity, we know His ways are best because He created us and His character.

“But now, O Lord , you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand.” Isaiah 64:8 ESV

God created us, and He tells us who we are. Placing our identity in Him means we don’t have to concern ourselves with who the world tells us to be.

In Him, we are loved, forgiven, and redeemed, and He continues to work in us to become more like Jesus. We have to make the daily choice to let go of our grip on our desires and wants and surrender ourselves to the Lord.

God does not owe us anything, yet He chose us, created us, and sent Jesus to die for us. As born-again Christians, we are adopted as God’s children (Ephesians 1:5)!

Society also says that there is no absolute truth, but that is anything but true. Our morality and truth comes from God, who created and defines everything.

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.” John 1:1-3 ESV

“Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.’” John 14:6 ESV

I can go on about the evidences for God’s existence and the Bible, but I would like to come back to our main topic: identity.

Pastor Louie Giglio has a sermon from many years ago that has always spoken to me. In this sermon, he talks about how small the earth is compared to the rest of the universe. It’s crazy how small we are compared to stars, planets, and galaxies.

And yet, he comes back to focus on the small things. Specifically, he preaches passionately about how our DNA is designed from the moment we’re conceived:

“…those chromosomes matched, and when they did they began to form, together, a brand new DNA code…using four characters, four nucleotides…and they began to write out what is the three billion-character description of who you are written in the language of God, describing who God had ordained you to be.”

The Bible speaks to this so much: how we’re created by God, everyone individually and carefully formed, and how He has a plan for our lives.

God cares for His children so deeply that we can never comprehend His love fully.

“My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them. How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! If I would count them, they are more than the sand. I awake, and I am still with you.” Psalm 139:15-18 ESV

God created each of us so intentionally. He breathed out the stars wove us together in our mother’s womb, and His thoughts about us are precious.

Louie Giglio then goes on to explain another amazing thing about the human body: we are purposefully held together. Not by chance, but by God’s design.

“Have you ever seen workers build a brick building? They don’t just stack the bricks on top of each other. They need some sort of glue to hold all those bricks together. The glue for bricks is called mortar. In the same way, your body is made up of 37.2 trillion little bricks called cells. And like a building, those cells need some sort of glue to hold them all together. The glue for cells is called laminin. Laminin holds your body together. The thing that’s even more amazing about laminin is what it looks like. When you take a peek at laminin (and you’ll need an electron microscope to see it), it looks like . . . a cross.”

*This quote is from a book of his, but it’s essentially what he said in his sermon.

What an amazing thing, that we are created and held together by Him!

When life gets hard and you don’t know where to go (and even when it’s good), turn to the One who created you. You were not made by mistake, but for His purpose. Jesus gave His life for you and He loves you so much. And we know that He is alive today! He is our Savior, and as we place our hope and our identity in Him, we can rest in the fact that He never changes.

As Christians, we are in the world, but not of it. We are called to look and act different than everyone else. To be Christlike in how we live. There is true joy and peace in Jesus and having a relationship with Him.

Let’s end with another verse:

“And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?” Matthew 6:28-30 ESV

There are so many other wonderful passages of Scripture that talk about God’s love for us and who He has made us/called us to be. He calls us (His children!) His masterpiece, and my goal is to always reflect that in the portraits I take and with my client interactions. I would encourage you to look deeper into His Word and seek Him today.