Identity

Today I turn 45.

In many ways it is hard to say, "I'm 45." It is even harder to admit it.

This morning, I took time to reflect on how quickly life passes. Seems like only yesterday I started kindergarten. But that was 40 years ago. In that same amount of time looking forward, I will be 85.

Yikes!

I still see myself as a 25 year old. My heart and mind always revert back to my youth, which makes it hard to see myself as a 70 year old.

The reality is that every day, I am moving closer to being 70 years old and further away from 25. As much as I want to hang on to the identity of my youth, who I am will continue to change over time.

On this day, I am reminded more deeply of the truth found in Matthew 6:19-21 where Jesus said: “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."

We struggle with applying what Jesus said because it is often the temporal that builds our identity in this world. In addition to age, we build our identity on accomplishments, wealth, marriage, family, relationships, influence, and how others see us.

Eventually, those will fade, disappear, and be no more.

With each passing day, I am more convinced that our identity in Christ is the identity that matters most. However, this identity must come from something greater than us pursuing Biblical knowledge in order to live the way we think a Christian should live. Our identity in Christ does not begin and end with moralism or behavior modification.

Finding our identity in Jesus begins with a commitment to identify ourselves with Jesus as Lord and Savior and daily walk with Him. Centering our lives on Jesus and growing in relationship with Him should be life's greatest pursuit. Jesus said, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it." Matthew 16:24-25 ESV

As we walk with Jesus, our lives will naturally reflect the character of Christ. Jesus said, "Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me." John 15:4 ESV

When we abide in Jesus, we find life's greatest satisfaction through Him. He molds and shapes our minds, our desires, and how we see the world. Jesus' glory is revealed as we experience God working in us, through us, and around us. This is where God shapes our identity.

When Jesus is King, our identity is built around Him. What Jesus does in us will be powerful, impacting and eternal. At the same time, others will see Jesus through us. 

Our identity in Christ has less to do with creating an image and has more to do with our willingness to go along for the ride. This transcends age, accomplishments, wealth, job, marriage, or everything that we are a part of.

Today, I want to encourage all of us to find our identity in Christ because finding our identity in Jesus puts us in a position to:

Live in the reality of God's greatest command to love Him.

"³⁵ And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. ³⁶ “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” ³⁷ And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. ³⁸ This is the great and first commandment."  -Matthew 22:35-38 ESV

Watch God create in me what I cannot create myself.

"...if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come." 2 Corinthians 5:17 ESV

Find peace and contentment.

"...casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you." 1 Peter 5:7 ESV

"⁶ do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. ⁷ And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." Philippians 4:6-7 ESV

Experience Jesus fill every longing  of my heart.

Jesus said: ¹³ “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, ¹⁴ but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” John 4:13-14 ESV

Know Jesus more deeply.

"⁸I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ ⁹ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— ¹⁰ that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, ¹¹ that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead." Philippians 3:8-11 ESV

Jesus said: "¹⁴ You are my friends if you do what I command you. ¹⁵ No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you." John 15:14-15 ESV

Enjoy eternal life.

Because eternal life begins at the moment Jesus saved me, the Holy Spirit lives in me and I am experiencing the privileges of being a child of God today such as the fruit of the Spirit--love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. (Galatians 5:22-23)

"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life." John 3:16 ESV

No matter how old you are today or what your circumstances look like, I want to encourage you to pursue Jesus with all your heart. If you do not know Him, I encourage you to seek Him. If we seek Jesus with all our hearts, we will find Him.