We are beginning a new series on our identity and thriving in that identity. Who are we? Today’s Bible Journaling Scripture is I Peter 1:3, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” (NASB) Today, I had a very difficult time doing my Bible Journaling page. It took me three times before I got it right. As I was beginning to get frustrated, the thought came into my head, “Satan doesn’t want this to get out.” I immediately told Satan, “Ok, Satan, leave me alone. I’m going to do this journal whether you like it or not. Go away!” That’s when it began to come together.
Did you know we can do that? As a Born-Again Believer, we can tell Satan to take a hike! That’s part of our identity. Most of the time when someone asks us who we are we say things like, “Oh, I’m a wife, mother, daughter, and I like to do…” But that isn’t who we truly are. If we have asked Jesus to be our Lord and Savior, we are saved, redeemed, loved, we are a child of the One and Only God, who is our Father and the King of all Kings. We have been given authority over the enemy that allows us to tell him to leave us alone when he comes to trip us up or cause us pain.
The Bible tells us who we are. Deuteronomy 7:6 says, “For you are a holy people to the Lord your God; the Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for His own possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.” (NASB) I love that it tells us that we have been chosen! That’s who we are…CHOSEN! We are chosen because God loves us. 1 John 3:16 says, “We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.” (NASB) That’s also part of our identity. We are LOVED!
We are also SAVED and REDEEMED. Jesus took the punishment for our sins on the cross. His blood wiped away all our sins past, present, and future. We are clean before God. We are made ACCEPTABLE in God’s eyes. Ezekiel 20:40 says, “For on my holy mountain, the high mountain of Israel, declares the Sovereign Lord, there in the land all the people of Israel will serve me, and there I will accept them. There I will require your offerings and your choice gifts along with all your holy sacrifices.” (NIV) Israel was God’s chosen people, just as Born-Again Believers are, and He accepted them as His own, just as He accepts us when we come to know Jesus as our Savior.
Our identity is in who God says we are. He calls us loved, He calls us redeemed, He calls us chosen, He calls us accepted, and He calls us BEAUTIFUL. “How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, ‘Your God reigns!’” (Isaiah 52:7 NIV) God looks at our hearts, not on the outer appearance. I think that’s where a lot of us get tripped up. We look at the outside of ourselves, and if you’re anything like me, we tend to not like what is looking back at us in the mirror. But God sees us as beautiful. He created us just as we are, and what He creates is good.
Today, as we think about our identity in Christ, we need to take a few minutes and contemplate who we are and make a list of how we are identified in the light of who God says we are. Maybe you don’t see yourself as God sees you. I want you to know that you are precious to Him, He loves you, and He sees you as a precious son or daughter of His. Study His Word to find your identity in Jesus, and you will come away with a totally different perspective.
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