Identity Identity

Identity seems to have become so important in today’s society. More than anything, someone just wants to BELONG somewhere, have a place they feel safe or to call home, and to be accepted and loved. We see phrases in the news and online that define someone by what their choice is or as to where a particular person “fits”. According to dictionary.com, identity is defined as, “the fact of being who or what a person or thing is.” It comes from the Latin word idem which means same. 

Our culture has evolved this word to encompass anything from nationality, to race, to gender, to sexuality, to political association, to religious leanings, to food preferences, and just about anything else you can think of. Culture has also labeled those people that fall into the categories that they’ve been assigned as to having to behave, dress, or think in the same manner, while making the individual think that they are standing out or doing something revolutionary. The way we identify ourselves changes as we walk through life. As we have our own experiences and grow, we find that those we used to identify with, no longer share the same values or ideas that we do, and we migrate towards others that do.

What is your identity in God’s eyes? Is this something you’ve ever tried to figure out? Once you start looking into who or what you are in Him, everything changes. 

What we as individuals have failed to realize, is that we actually already have an identity, and it doesn’t require us to have to fit into a stereotypical box that the world assigns. If we assign ourselves an identity, based on the things we think we know, it can put us into a bondage or a prison we didn’t know existed.

“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”

Jeremiah 1:5

God has something set aside for each of us before He even forms us in the womb. When I have run into an “identity crisis,” it’s often because I was trying to be something He did not set aside for me to be, or do something He did not set aside for me to do. I was trying to be someone that He had not appointed for me to be. An identity crisis is described by dictionary. com as, “a period of uncertainty and confusion in which a person’s sense of identity becomes insecure, typically due to a change in their expected aims or role in society.” The crisis has always resolved once I get back in line with what God had set aside for me to do.

Have you ever thought about what you could be capable of, if you truly sought what God intended for you to do or be? The Bible is full of examples of ordinary people that didn’t fit into a mold that culture had appropriated for them, and what happened when they stepped into what God had planned for them. Look at David, who was described as a man after God’s heart. He was the youngest of Jesse’s sons and a shepherd, yet God made him a king. I bet he went through an identity crisis himself! I personally don’t have the perspective of being a youngest sibling, but I would imagine the youngest has all those born ahead of him exerting authority on him daily. A shepherd is a humble position, but one that requires watching carefully for dangers to the flock he is tending. God chose David, possibly because of these very attributes. I can imagine David probably was thinking to himself, “What in the world is God thinking anointing me to be King? Doesn’t He know I’m not capable or ready for this?” 

Paul was another man that probably went through a heck of an identity crisis. He was literally taking part in persecuting the first Christians. Dragging them out of their houses and throwing them into prison and threatening them. After his bout with blindness, he tried to go spend time with the disciples, but was rejected. They knew his reputation. He had to win them over. Can you imagine what Paul was thinking when he learned what Christ wanted him to do? Not only Paul’s thoughts but the other disciples that had followed Christ from the beginning? Probably something along the lines of, “You chose HIM?? Don’t you know who he is??”

The thing is, none of will ever feel ready to do the things that God has sent us to do. We always feel that we need to get to this perfect place that doesn’t exist, and is absolutely unachievable. That’s because we are looking at it through human eyes, not God’s eyes. He doesn’t need someone to be perfect to use them. He doesn’t need for us to try to figure out logically why something can or can’t be done. He just needs us to be faithful, obedient, and trust Him. His ways are not our ways and His thoughts are not our thoughts. Take a step out in faith today and try to figure out who you are according to Him!