Take 30 seconds and try to come up with as many things as you can that never change. How did you do? Maybe you came up with some clever answer, but overall, we are surrounded by change. Our lives can change in an instant and we are powerless to stop it. Yet, we are tend to place our identities in things that change or altering our identities to fit the change.
We place our identity in our job, our money, our looks, our possessions, our relationships, our kids, our success, or our beliefs. But these things change, fade, rust, disappear, fall apart, let us down, grow old, and never satisfy. Most of the world lives with their identity tied to these unstable things, completely unaware that they could live any differently. What happens when we live out of these identities is we live in anxiety, depression, disappointment, uncertainty, insecurity, anger, hurt, pride, or selfishness. These things are inevitable when we build our lives on that which is unstable.
Jesus offers an identity that will never change and can last forever. The identity he gives us isn’t based on worldly things that are guaranteed to shift like shadows. This identity isn’t based on anything we do or don’t do. It isn’t based on anything earthly at all. When we live out of the identity that Jesus gives, we can trust in God’s power and provision, we can have true joy, no matter the circumstances. We can have hope, we can have peace, we can have confidence, we can have strength, we can have freedom. In fact, we were created to live out of the identity that Jesus gives and that is precisely why it is so harmful when we don’t.
When we live out of an identity we weren’t created to live out of, it is much like using a tool that was never created to do the job you’re trying to use it to accomplish. Try digging a 6-foot hole with a spoon. It’s so difficult because a spoon was created to shovel food into your mouth and a shovel was created to dig a deep hole. Similarly, we cannot flourish when we try to live out of an earthly, unstable identity.
Reflection/Discussion Question: What are you placing your identity in?
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