“Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us.” — 1 John 3:1
Who are you? Do you wonder why you are here and what your life means?
A young man, college age, nervously checks his phone every time it buzzes or pings, while fiddling with the Bible on his lap. He sits in our church counseling office and says he’s confused. About life…about his future…about God. “I just don’t know who I really am,” he admits.
A middle-aged man realizes that his life hasn’t followed his dreams. He’s feeling his age. He’s tired of his job. His kids are growing up and growing distant. He questions everything from his marriage to his faith. He looks in the mirror and wonders who that person is and what his life is all about.
A busy woman with a family, a job, and lists of commitments that keep her running and worn out, often stops in her rare quiet moments and wonders, “Is this who I am? Is this what I am meant to be doing?”
The human race suffers from a huge identity crisis! Most of us don’t realize who we are, and who we are meant to be.
We are God’s creation, made in His image. Thousands of years of sin, corruption, sorrow, and disease may have broken us down into something barely recognizable to anyone who could have known Adam and Eve in their before-the-fall state. But we are still God’s creation!
He sent His Son, Jesus, to restore us and make us alive through His Spirit. He makes us “new creatures” and gives us a new identity. We may carry the outward marks of this world, but our souls and spirits are again back in the garden with Him.
Through Him we are “renewed in the spirit” of our minds (Ephesians 4:23), we will never thirst (John 4:14), never perish (John 3:16), and we can know and experience the width, length, depth,and height of the love of Christ (Ephesians 3:18-19).
Who are we?
We are children of God (John 1:12) and friends of God (John 15:14). We are servants of the Almighty and heirs to all that He has to give us (Romans 8:17). God calls His people His “beloved” throughout Scripture.
“I am my beloved’s, and my beloved is mine!” the Song of Solomon proclaims.
Remember who you are. God’s beloved.
