Last week we talked about how our heavenly Father gives us identity. We talked about how sometimes, and especially in the times we live in now, people are fighting to be unique. To be different. To stand out. But God already made us unique and different. We are His masterpiece. The Creator of all things beautiful, looks at us and calls us a masterpiece! How amazing is that?
This week we will consider why identity matters. We have been asking the question, if we are God’s children, how come the people in our world hardly ever get to encounter God through us? Part of that has to do with our identity. If we embrace our identity in Christ, if we take on the identity of being God’s children our lives have to align with who we are. The issue however, is that our lives move in the direction of what we believe not what we know.
How we see ourselves matters. What we believe about ourselves matters. Nothing makes this clearer than the story of the twelve spies who were sent to check out the land of Canaan in Numbers 13. Ten of the spies said they could not possess the promised land because the people in the land were like giants and they (the spies) were like grasshoppers, not to the people in Cannan, but in their own eyes!
How many times do we walk into a room and feel underqualified to be in the room? How many times do we get presented with an opportunity but draw back because we think we are not ready for it or it’s too big an opportunity and we are afraid we will mess it up? How many times do we self-sabotage because we think we are not good enough for what God is trying to give us?
What we believe about ourselves matters. If you see yourself as a grasshopper, then you will never be ready, the timing will never be right or you will not feel good enough, pretty enough, smart enough, talented enough or whatever your excuse may be. There will always be a reason to walk away from the opportunities God puts in front of you. No matter how much your heavenly Father wants you to have it, you can’t receive it because of how you see yourself. Your identity matters.
I heard it said this way, your identity is like your internal meter. If your internal meter is set at 40%, every room you show up in, you show up at 40%. Every opportunity that comes your way, you can only give it 40% because that’s all you got. Now imagine what your life could look like if you truly believed everything the word of God says about you… God would find full expression in our lives because not only would we step into God opportunities confidently, but we would also welcome and allow God to move and flow through us because we are secure in our identity in Him. Imagine how different our world would be if we could just embrace our identity in Him.
When our identity is separated from God and is formulated in self, we are limited in what we can do. But when we embrace our identity in God as His children who are deeply loved and cared for, as a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation and God’s special possession (1 Peter 2:9), the possibilities are limitless. Two of the spies who believed what God said about them inherited the promised land the other ten died in the desert together with a whole generation. It matters what we believe.
What do you believe about you? It is time you read the word of God and see what it says about you. Write it down, put it somewhere where you can see it and read it everyday until you believe it. How you see yourself matters. It is time you start seeing yourself through the eyes of your heavenly Father.
Love and blessings,
Melissa Tsingano.
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