1 John 4:17-18 says, “And as we live in God, our love grows more perfect. So we will not be afraid on the day of judgment, but we can face him with confidence because we live like Jesus here in this world. Such love has no fear, because perfect love expels all fear. If we are afraid, it is for fear of punishment, and this shows that we have not fully experienced his perfect love.”
Last week we talked about 1 John 4:17-18 above. It says two important things that we need for this week. First, we need to live in God and second, when we live like Jesus in this world, we can face God with confidence because His perfect love casts out fear.
How did Jesus live in this world? He was fully confident in His identity as the Son of God. Everything Jesus did, how He moved, healed, spoke and even up to the point of how He died, He did it all because He was secure in who He was as God’s Son. We have been talking about how it is possible that we are God’s children yet the people around us never get to experience God through us. Last week we considered the issue of love. Is God’s love living in us? This week we will consider our identity.
Yeah, identity is a hot subject in this day and age but mainly because we want to give ourselves our identity. We want to be self made. We want to be original and different. But guess what, we are already original. Ephesians 2:10 says, “For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.” We are a masterpiece, one of a kind, special and valuable.
We were never meant to give ourselves our identity. Jesus didn’t even give Himself His identity. At His baptism, we hear God clearly pronounce Jesus’ identity as follows in Matthew 3:19, “And a voice from heaven said, “This is my dearly loved Son, who brings me great joy.””
Papa God gave Jesus His identity and He gives us ours too. 1 John 3:1 says, “What marvelous love the Father has extended to us! Just look at it—we’re called children of God! That’s who we really are. But that’s also why the world doesn’t recognize us or take us seriously, because it has no idea who he is or what he’s up to.”
The Father has given us our identity as His children. And what a wonderful identity we have been given! If we try to make our identity ourselves, we place it in things of lesser value. What could be more valuable than being called children of God? What could be worth more than the fact that the Creator of heaven and earth and the universe as we know it, wants to be our Dad?
So why do we place our identity in inferior things that can only disappoint? We place our identity in our accomplishments or lack thereof, our sexuality, our financial status, our trauma, our beliefs about ourselves and the list goes on. These things were never meant to define us. What gives us our identity, is that there is a Father in heaven who loves us so much that when we believe in His Son and put our hope in Jesus, all of heaven rejoices as the Father declares that He has just gained a son or He has just gained a daughter! Just the thought of you puts a smile on His face. You are God’s child.
Something changes in us when we realise that. We live different. We want to please our heavenly Father and not ourselves. We want to submit to His will and plan for our lives because we trust Him. We begin to pray different, because we are not praying to a far away God, we are talking to our Dad, our very own Papa God whose heart is to bless us and whose ear is always turned towards us. Yes, He is listening and yes He hears every prayer and yes, He answers every prayer. We get so fixated on how God should answer our prayers that we sometimes miss the answer He gives. But guaranteed, He hears and He answers every single time.
You are God’s child. So, stand upright, shoulders back, take a deep breath in and as you let it out, remind yourself, “I am a child of God and I am deeply loved.” Because that is who you are.
Love and blessings,
Melissa Tsingano
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