How Do You Know What You Are Called to Be as a Christian

Core Christian Beliefs

Your Identity in Christ: How God Sees Y'all

Brittany Yesudasan

Our culture is very interested in the journeying of discovering individual identity. Personality tests, dream assessments, even Buzzfeed quizzes are available everywhere you look. Information technology seems like everyone is searching for something to tell them who they are, where they belong and how they chronicle to the globe.

The Bible says that all men and women are created in God's image. Humankind was created to reflect some of God's attributes. You can look for your identity anywhere, merely followers of Jesus are called to find their identity in Him.

Where Do You Find Your Identity?

While our world encourages you to look within yourself for your identity, your natural tendency is to search for your identity in external things.

One of the first places that you can be tempted to await to is your career. Spending your time and energy pursuing your career tin can cause you to feel like it is a defining feature of who you are. Afterward all, a job that you are dedicated to is likely to take upward well-nigh of your fourth dimension and attending.

Jobs and careers are closely continued to other places where you tin can search for your identity, such every bit financial success and condition. Only it doesn't stop there. We likewise ask our relationship statuses, appearance, grades, and reputation to provide a sense of identity.

Any or all of these may experience like solid foundations, but none of them are not permanent. Whatsoever of them could modify without alarm. If you base of operations your identity on things similar success, wealth, power, concrete advent, and then on,  you lot are setting yourself up for  great disappointment. A sudden job loss could leave you questioning your choices in life. One piece of gossip aimed your way could destroy your reputation, even if information technology is untrue. Your advent will alter equally you get older.

God, however, is unchanging. He is reliable. He is the aforementioned yesterday, today and forever. If you find your identity in Him, you volition never ultimately be permit down because He has proven fourth dimension and time again to be trustworthy.

It is important, every bit y'all ascertain your identity, that God non be but an attribute of who you are, like "I am a Christian," or "I am religious," or "I am spiritual".  Understanding your identity in God starts with understanding who He is, what He says virtually Himself, and what He says nigh you. Your identity tin be defined past who God is making you to be in His prototype.

How God Sees His Children

To be able to understand your identity every bit a follower of Christ, you lot demand to sympathise how He sees you. It's tempting to build your identity on what yous accomplish, but this is non a stable foundation.

Your true identity is ultimately based on what God has done for you lot. In the Bible, God tells the states often about how He views His people. Allow'south take a look at what He says most you, if y'all received Him equally your Lord and Savior. (Learn how to have a personal relationship with God and inquire Him to be your Lord and Savior.)

You Are Loved

In Christ, yous are loved. Y'all were created with a purpose. You are not just a convenient carbon copy of someone else. Y'all were created uniquely and with intention. God lovingly designed every particular of your person. Can you imagine the honey involved with that intricate design?

Yous Are Chosen

In Christ, you are not merely loved only chosen. God sent His own Son to earth to die in your place so that you could exist included in His family.

God was not obligated to choose you lot based on your functioning or credentials. He chose to carry out an intricate program that involved the death of His own perfect Son, which allowed you the opportunity to be a kid of God.

You lot are no mistake. You are chosen and wanted.

You Are Forgiven

In gild to be counted a child of the perfect Male parent, you had to exist gratis of sin — that is, yous had to be perfect with regard to doing right and not doing incorrect. That is a tall order because no one but Jesus was or is perfect and no one can attain perfection past their own try.

However, because Jesus who was without sin died the death yous should take on the cantankerous, you can be forgiven of sin. What yous've washed wrong is not counted against you, and all that Christ did correct is counted for y'all. This forgiveness allows y'all to be considered a child of God.

Therefore, in God's eyes, if you have accepted what Jesus did for you, you are completely forgiven. From His perspective, you are without sin. It'due south non that you won't sin, but when He looks at you, He calls you forgiven. That is something on which you can build your identity.

You lot Are Redeemed

What does your forgiveness mean? You are redeemed — that is, Christ'due south cede has bought you back from the forces of sin and evil that once owned and controlled you and made yous His.

When God looks at you lot, He does non see a former sinner. He does not encounter you in light of who yous one time were. He sees you every bit redeemed: a new creation that has been made whole.

You do non have to define yourself in calorie-free of your past mistakes. God does non practice that. You can walk in the identity of someone who is made new in Christ.

Yous Are Adopted

What does information technology mean to be considered a child of God? Information technology means that you have been adopted into His family. You are considered a legitimate child of the God of the universe, having all the rights and standing of Jesus His Son.

God sees you as a cherished child who bears His name. Merely equally earthly adoption is a legally binding process that names you lot a permanent function of a family, heavenly adoption is merely every bit permanent and binding. You are His child, and He will never take that away.

What the Bible Says About Identity in Christ

Yous don't have to take anyone's word for it. Actually, God wants you to find out for yourself by reading His Word. It is then important that you go to the Bible to find out how He feels about yous. Your identity should never be based on a hope or a estimate. God gave u.s.a. His Word, the Bible, so you can know Him and know who He is making you to exist in Him.

"You are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God'due south people and also members of his household." (Ephesians 2:19, New International Version)

Nosotros are members of His household, not strangers. If you follow Christ, you lot vest in God'southward household and with His people.

In this passage, Paul is encouraging followers of Christ to remember that they are all part of ane family. They are to be unified with each other.  This can just happen if you lot understand that yous are a legitimate kid of God. You are office of His family.

"God is able to bless you abundantly, and so that in all things at all times, having all that yous demand, you will grow in every proficient work." (2 Corinthians 9:8, NIV)

Every bit a kid of God, you are blest and provided for. God is able to provide you with everything you lot demand in Christ. He is the Owner of everything and the Giver of all adept things.

"See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that nosotros should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the globe does not know us is that it did not know Him." (one John 3:ane, NIV)

In Christ, you are loved. Your identity is a child of God. This Bible verse comes from a chapter that warns against the temptation to devious from God into sin. You can resist sin by remembering that God has the best for His children. He offers you more than the world e'er could. You are complete in His dearest.

"The LORD your God is with yous, the Mighty Warrior who saves. He will take not bad delight in you; in His honey He volition no longer rebuke you, simply volition rejoice over you with singing." (Zephaniah 3:17, NIV)

Jesus delights in you. You are non just accepted or put up with. You are welcomed into His family with delight.

When correction comes, it lasts for a brusque time considering the goal is for it to help you reflect God's holy character more accurately. He delights in you and then much that He is making you more similar Himself twenty-four hour period by day.

"God made Him who had no sin to exist sin for u.s.a., so that in Him nosotros might become the righteousness of God." (2 Corinthians 5:21, NIV)

You lot are God'south righteousness. Yous are His goodness and rightness considering of what Christ did on the cantankerous. This was given to y'all, and you are called righteous past the Lord of the universe.

You lot tin can live in calorie-free of the righteousness y'all were given. It not just allows you to arroyo God with conviction, just it allows you to be an administrator to others effectually yous. Because your righteousness is not earned just freely given through religion in Jesus, you can share this gift with others and invite them to be God's righteousness also.

"Bear with each other and forgive i another if whatever of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive equally the Lord forgave y'all." (Colossians three:13, NIV)

You lot are forgiven. If you are a follower of Christ, yous take go God's kid because the Lord forgave you for the sin you committed against Him.

As someone who is forgiven, you tin can at present freely forgive others. God extended grace — that is, undeserved favor — to you. You can extend that grace to others around y'all.

"We are God'south handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to practice good works, which God prepared in advance for usa to exercise." (Ephesians 2:10, NIV)

You were created with a purpose. God had specific intentions for your life when He brought yous into the earth. Get-go and foremost, your purpose is to know Him and glorify Him. And then you can engage in other good works that will bring God glory and grow your own faith.

You lot were saved from great sin. Now, every bit a child of God, you tin can walk with God and do great good through His work in yous.

"If anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!" (2 Corinthians 5:17, NIV)

In Christ, you lot are a new creation. God has made you new. The old things that used to define you accept been taken away. God used to identify you every bit an enemy, but now he knows you as a kid. You who were a sinner are at present righteous.

You are new because through Jesus your sin has been paid for. Yous have been restored in right standing before God.

"You are a called people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God'south special possession, that you may declare the praises of Him who chosen y'all out of darkness into His wonderful lite." (one Peter 2:9, NIV)

You are special to God. Yous are chosen by Him. This verse comes from a passage that talks about how Christ was rejected by many. But by organized religion in Jesus through the power of the Holy Spirit, if yous trust in Jesus, you are part of His holy, chosen people.

You can rid yourself of things that are part of the old you lot, role of the darkness, such as cant, hypocrisy, envy, and slander considering you have been brought into wonderful lite.

Obstacles to Believing in Your Identity

Even if you know all these things about where a follower of Christ finds their identity, there can often be obstacles standing in the way of believing who y'all are in Christ. Other sources of identity often stand in the way, such as career, appearance or money. Simply there are other things that can distract you as well.

Past Sin

Anybody has made mistakes. Anybody has sinned. If you take Christ, God forgives you of these things.

Psalm 103:12 (NIV) says, "Equally far as the east is from the due west, so far has He removed our transgressions from u.s.a.." Transgression is another word for sin or mistakes. God removes your sin from you. You volition still often recollect your sins, and those memories can make you lot feel unworthy, keepings you from accepting your true identity.

Outside Letters or Experiences

You might non just retrieve what y'all have done; yous may as well remember what people have done to you. Mayhap y'all were treated poorly or neglected. Maybe people told y'all negative things about yourself.

The globe is broken by sin. There are people who have experienced unspeakable injustice. From gossip to verbal and physical corruption, outside messages are trying to shape your identity every day. Those outside messages can lead y'all to believe that yous are unworthy of what the Bible says is true of you lot in Christ.

False Beliefs

As yous follow Jesus, you volition seek to know Him more. Yous can do this through fourth dimension in the Discussion, through prayer, through talking with friends or a mentor and through gathering together with other believers in worship.

As your understanding of God grows, y'all may recognize flawed beliefs that you held before that practise not line up with what yous are hearing and learning about your identity now.

Possibly you grew up learning that you can lose your conservancy. Maybe you thought that there were certain behaviors or sins that disqualify you from receiving Christ's salvation. There are many false beliefs out there that seem correct but really take away from who God is and what He says. Information technology can be confusing to piece of work through these differences.

How Can You Answer?

These obstacles are difficult to navigate. Information technology's easy to believe that these things are legitimate barriers to following Jesus. Only by the power of the Holy Spirit, you tin overcome these obstacles and live fully in the identity that you were given in Jesus.

Repent

The discussion "repent" means that you agree with God. So the first thing you can practice to embrace your identity is to concord with Him that you are assertive things that are no longer true of you.

Bring the things yous are struggling with to Him. Admit that they are difficult for you to overcome. Confess that you believe Him when He says that they are no longer true of y'all.

Grieve

Many places in scripture encourage believers of Jesus to mourn over their sin. Although your sin no longer defines your identity, you practise still experience its effects in your life. Therefore, it is legitimate and even important to grieve the sin that keeps you from truly believing the things Jesus says.

You tin also grieve the sins that were committed against you and all that those wounds cost you lot. You tin can grieve the effect that it had on your relationship with the Lord.

Paul was one of the leaders of the early church building who helped write the Bible's New Attestation. In a letter to i church, which nosotros now know equally the Bible's book of 1 Thessalonians, he talks about how to mourn for lost loved ones. He helps us to empathize how we can grieve well.

"Brothers and sisters, we practise not desire yous to be uninformed about those who sleep in decease, so that you do non grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no promise" (ane Thessalonians 4:xiii, NIV).

In this passage, "those who slumber in decease" is referring to followers of Jesus who have passed away. Paul says that we can grieve that they are no longer hither and yet accept hope that in Jesus they live in eternity.

The same principle applies to grief over sin. You can grieve your own sin and the sin of others, all the while knowing that you have promise in Christ. You are a new creation. Yous are forgiven and restored in Jesus.

Invite the Lord to Change Your Mind

When you have confessed and grieved these things, you lot can enquire God to help you lot believe what is true. He is the ane who renews your mind and changes your heart.

God is the 1 who grows your religion and makes you new. Ask Him to aid yous believe the things that He says of you.  Ask Him to continue to make you into the person that He intends you to be in Jesus.

He is faithful, and He will do it.

Invite Others to Assistance You

God never meant for you to walk with Jesus on your own. He brings people into your life then that you tin can encourage ane another.

When you lot are struggling with past sin or false and discouraging beliefs, share that struggle with a trusted friend. Inviting others to pray for you and remind you of the truth can be then beneficial.

A believer that is farther along on their organized religion journey can provide great insight to you as yous walk with Jesus. Consider inviting a beau laic to mentor you in areas that are a struggle for you.

When Christ followers bear one another's burdens, they not only abound closer to the Lord, only they grow in unity with other Christ followers.

Seeing Yourself every bit God Sees You lot Matters

If you put your religion in Jesus, yous take a new identity in Him. The more than you get to know Jesus through His word and time in prayer, the more you will understand your identity in Him.

The more than you get to know Jesus, the more you will be able to identify areas of your life that you are not living in this identity by the power of the Holy Spirit.

If you believed that yous were all that God says you are in Christ, how would that change the way y'all lived, the style you lot interact with others, or the way that you relate to the Lord?

Equally you lot detect your identity in Christ, you will grow to wait more than like Him and less like the world. Yous will grow in intimacy with Him and with other believers.

Where Practise I Become From Hither?

To acquire more than well-nigh finding your identity in Christ, go through the exercise described in "How to Notice Your Truthful Identity."

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