Find your Identity

Someone I know recently got their identity stolen. The money in every single one of their accounts was gone, social security was compromised, and the person who did it was not caught. This is something that could happen to anyone of us at anytime. Nobody can secure their identity well enough to know without a doubt that it will not get hacked into. That’s a terrible thought isn’t it? The more I thought of it though, even if we lose everything—our money, our good name, our jobs, or our loved ones, we can always find our identity in Christ. God will never leave us or forsake us. The world can be falling apart around us, we can be stripped of everything we have built for ourselves in this world, and he will remain faithful.

A go-to example of this would be Job. Job is a man in the Old Testament who had unparalleled wealth and influence. He had over 10,000 animals and 10 kids as well as many servants. At the same time he was a man of God. Satan got permission from God to make every effort to get Job to curse God. He took Job’s possessions, he took the lives of his family, and he spread disease throughout the household, leaving Job barren before the Lord with nothing to offer and no apparent reason for his demise. Yet even when Job is confronted with more sorrow and loss than anyone, he responds with humility:

2 “I know that you can do all things;
no purpose of yours can be thwarted.
3 You asked, ‘Who is this that obscures my plans without knowledge?’
Surely I spoke of things I did not understand,
things too wonderful for me to know.
4 “You said, ‘Listen now, and I will speak;
I will question you,
and you shall answer me.’
5 My ears had heard of you
but now my eyes have seen you.
6 Therefore I despise myself
and repent in dust and ashes.” (Job 42:2-6)

Job realized that he is a child of the king of kings. He belongs to the Alpha and Omega, Beginning and the End, the Prince of Peace, and the Lord of Lords. He realizes that, in fact, the realization that such a magnificent God has claimed him as his own is so much greater than his identity found in his own accomplishment or gain. If our God is for us, which he is, than nothing can overcome us! When our identity gets muddled in the mess of life we can remain confident in the fact that “our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body,” (Philippians 3:20-21).