I am defined by…
How would you answer that question?
I am defined by my looks? By my grades? By how many followers or likes I have? By my parents’ approval? Or the
Well, let me tell you that the only answer to that question should be:
I am defined by God’s love for me and how he sees me.
I have just recently run into probably the most challenging class I have ever had. Not to brag or anything, but I have received pretty fair grades throughout my schooling and having a hard time with a class isn’t something I normally deal with. (Not saying I haven’t had a hard time with classes before… uh, insert all high school math classes here… it’s been a while).
BUT…
I’ve come to realize, especially after the emotional breakdown I had over the phone with my father because I felt I didn’t do amazing on an exam, that I allow the grades I receive to define me. If I don’t get an A or at least a high B in a class, I tend to beat myself up about it, but I shouldn’t let it define who I am or how I think of myself.
This is not to say that striving for good grades is a terrible thing… OR that failure is a terrible thing… We definitely learn a lot when it comes to failure. For example, learning that just because something doesn’t come easily, doesn’t mean I am any less valuable as a person.
We shouldn’t place our value or our worth on trivial things as listed above because the more we do, the more chance there is to become burnt out. When we experience failure or we uncover the truth about what someone else thinks of us, and we are basing our value off of success and/or what other people think of us, our very identity can be shaken or thrown off completely. Leaving us scrambling to find something else to place our identity on, and in this we are constantly changing our own identity.
Take a second now to read through Ephesians 1:3-14.
This passage shows what God thinks of us. When are in Christ, we have been blessed with every spiritual blessing; we have been chosen, adopted, redeemed, forgiven, grace-lavished, and unconditionally loved and accepted. These aspects of our identity can never be shaken by what we do.
If we take the passage above and apply this directly to our lives; when we live out of an identity based on how God sees us, we will no longer feel the need to find our identity in external circumstances.
Doing this is going to take a while to adjust to because we live in a world that wants to define us by its own standards, but think of how freeing placing your identity in Christ is!
You don’t have to figure out where your identity lies, you don’t have to worry about your identity ever being shaken or altered, you can live freely in knowing that Jesus died to save His beloved child. It gives us the opportunity to experience His unconditional love for us and enables us to share that love with others!
