Who Am I?
By Machelle McDowell
Acts 10:34-35 “So Peter opens his mouth and said: “Truly I understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him.”
Have you ever asked yourself this question, “Who am I?” Some people never find the answer. Finding your identity is hard, but not if it is found in Christ! God does not pick and choose people by their race, their p. olitical affiliation, their successes or their failures. Peter said it best, “God shows no partiality.” If you are a believer in Christ and follow his commands, YOU ARE A CHILD OF GOD. If you are a child of God, you are a part of the family of God, a royal priesthood, (I Peter 2:9). We are adopted into royalty when God accepts us as his own. We belong to the King of Kings! It does not matter where we came from, what we have done, or what color our skin is.
Sometimes we try to build our identity on false beliefs or feelings we have about certain things. I hear this comment often when people try to do life on their own, “I don’t even know who I am anymore.” More times than not this comment stems from sin that is prevalent in ones life at that time. We might focus on a behavior or an addiction and feel that is who we are: a gossip, a slanderer, a liar, an alcoholic, an addict, an adulterer, or could be many other categories. But, God says we are forgiven, redeemed, and God’s possession!
You know….before Matthew met Christ, (in the New Testament), he was known as, “The Tax Collector,” but after he met Jesus, his identity changed to Matthew, “The Apostle.” God has a way of changing our identity in him! Amen!
We are his temple, His vessel, and are chosen! That is what it looks like to be justified by His grace. That my friend is who you are if Christ is your Lord! As Christians, sin is a reality that often leads us to lift ourselves up on a pedestal instead of placing God on a pedestal.
When self is lifted up it is inevitable that a person will experience a wilderness journey in search of fulfillment of a void that only God can fill.
Who am I? Flesh says we are lustful, wealth driven, discontented, power seekers, and lovers of self. OUCH! BUT…A child of God can ask that question with confidence in knowing the answer will bring a sense of security that seals our identity in Christ. When we ask God, “Who am I?” He says we are His and we are all about his business. We are eternally in the palm of His hand. We are filled with his power and seated in the heavenly places. We are secure! We are healed by his stripes and covered by His blood.
Our Christian life is not about thriving to fulfill our own purpose, but to fulfill the purpose God has for us. Matthew 16 speaks of “denying self and taking up his cross.”
Who are we? He is our identity.
Friends, God shows no partiality. My mind goes to one of the most famous examples of rebel to righteousness. It is found in 2 Samuel:12. David commits adultery with Bathsheba and then arranges her husband’s death. The beauty in the story is when David recognizes his sin. David says to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.” And, Nathan reassures David by replying, “The Lord also has put away your sin; you shall not die.” David was known to be a man after God’s own heart. He wasn’t remembered as the adulterer or the murderer, but that God loved him deeply and used him to carry out the lineage of Christ! The more we focus on who we are in Christ, the less it matters who we were in the past. God shows no partiality, friends!
Are you lost? Are you asking the question, “Who am I?” “What is my identity?”
God has the answer you seek!