I watched the last game of the World Series this year. Not because I like baseball (sorry, baseball fans, but I fully support you liking it!) but more because everyone was talking about it being an historic game. After it was over, they interviewed one of the coaches of the winning team. The reporter asked him what he had told his team during the rain delay. He said “I just reminded them of who they are.” That comment pulled me up short. He reminded his team of who they were, and then they went and played accordingly.
I lose sight of who I am quite often. The negative identity messages that circle through my head are of being unworthy, unloved, a failure and without hope. And people are very willing to contribute to these messages—we keep letting crazy people tell us who we are! Those messages seem to describe who I am, but they are not true. When I accept Jesus’ gift of His Life and give him my cruddy one in the most unfair (but amazing!) exchange ever, everything that is true about Jesus is now true about me. It may not FEEL true, but it IS true. So, my identity is worthy, loved, successful (in God’s success meter) and hopeful. This is who I am.
Often, I lose sight of who I am and live according to the old identity. I operate based on what I feel is true rather than the truth of what God tells me. I need to be reminded of who I am. Behavior follows the heart, and if I am focused on the truth of Jesus’ Life in me, my behavior will be a natural outflow of that. This means I can love my enemies, do good to those who hate me, be strong when I feel weak, and be patient with even the small ones who try this patience so easily (can I get an amen, moms with small children??). I don’t have enough when I am living out of my old identity—but that old identity isn’t true about me anymore. It’s just something I’m used to.
It’s like being taken out of a slum and made into a princess but then turning around and living in the squalor again because it’s more comfortable. It’s what I know, but it isn’t what is true about me. Do you need to be reminded who you are today? Ask God to show you what He thinks of you. I think His amazing love for you will blow you away. No seemingly impossible task is impossible when we are living out of His love for us.
My old identity has been co-crucified with Christ and no longer lives. And now the essence of this new life is no longer mine, for the Anointed One lives his life through me—we live in union as one! My new life is empowered by the faith of the Son of God who loves me so much that he gave himself for me, dispensing his life into mine! Galatians 2:20-21