Searching for Identity

Understanding identity, or who we are in Christ is such a difficult concept to grasp when we have spent our lives pursuing happiness, contentment, acceptance, and love through our performance. The concept of God loving us and fully accepting us is extremely difficult. Partly this is because, we know ourselves! We know our thoughts, our shortcoming, and our mistakes.

We look around and compare ourselves to others and think, they are way more capable than I am. God can use a person like that way better than He can use me. I have to work harder and fix my problems first before God can love me. We may also think; I have to get better, or I am not good enough. These are lies from the enemy!

This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. – 1 John 4:10

Anyone who has ever accepted Christ knows what this means, even if you have never seen this scripture. All of us were first pursued by God, before we accepted Him into our hearts. How many have testimonies that talk about how in the midst of our mess, our bottom, our worst, we found God? During those times, we were not looking for God. He was working behind the scenes, formulating a plan, wooing us, loving us, and ready to ultimately deliver us. Nowhere in that scripture does it say we had to do anything for God to accept us. He was there all along, waiting for us to come to Him.

Now he had to go through Samaria. So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon. When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.) Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.” “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?” Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” – John 4: 4-13

The Pursuer

Note in the scripture verse that this woman was not looking for Jesus. Jesus was looking for this woman. She was not worthy by societal standards. She had five ex-husbands, and was living with yet another man who was not her husband. Yet, Jesus went out of his way to find her. He pursued her and waited at the well in order to offer her the gift of salvation.

This sounds wonderful. When we first get saved, we loved the idea that God accepted us right where we were. Here’s the thing, the longer we walk along our Christian journey, somehow we start to feel like we still need to earn God’s acceptance. He already accepted us! In fact, if you really think about it, like the woman at the well, God pursued us, and we accepted Him, and his invitation for salvation. Why then, do we keep striving and trying to earn acceptance?

The simple answer, these are lies of the enemy. If you are a believer, I want to ask you a question. Who are you? Think about it …. Who are you? Are you a doctor, a waitress, a student? Are you a big sister, a star athlete, a preacher? Are you a prostitute, a drug addict, an alcoholic? Are you a victim of abuse, a single mom, a cheated on wife? How about, are you a climber? I would submit to you that you are none of those things. Your identity does not lie in what you do, what happened to you, what you are good at or how you look. Your identity is not tied to the good, the bad or the ugly. You are a daughter of the Most High God. You are a princess, purchased with a price, fearfully and wonderfully made in the Master’s image. You are redeemed, accepted, never again to be separated from the ultimate Love of your life. You are a SAINT, equipped to shed the labels of your past, and walk in the full confidence of Christ. You are not a sinner, you are a SAINT, and nothing, good or bad, can change that.

Understanding this concept is the easy part. You might even believe it to be true. Why then, does the identity battle rage on? Why do our old identities keep creeping in, and cause us to falter. That booger Satan is always there, waiting to strike with his lies, praying on our weaknesses, twisting our perception of reality to fit whatever lies he has whispered in our ears.

Satan preys on our weaknesses in every facet of our lives. Just when we think we have figured it out, something else comes along, attacking our confidence and our identity. This is a common struggle for all of us, in many different ways.

I have even struggled with this in the area of climbing. I find that I compare myself to those who are better climbers and stronger. I get frustrated with the amount of climbing time I have. I beat myself up for not training more and eating too much. I get down on myself when I cannot pull that difficult move. After all, I am a climber! I’ve been climbing for six years now, and should be better than this!

Is my identity found in climbing?

Then, God gently nudges me and reminds me, “No Renee, you are not a climber. You are my beloved and perfect daughter, who happens to enjoy climbing. Enjoy the gifts I have given you, such as my creation, and the rock. Relish the camaraderie and relationships that go along with climbing. Celebrate the victories, rest in the times of weakness, and rely on me for strength. Never lose sight of what really matters, Me.”

How many areas of our lives dictate our joy, our peace, and our rest? What if we let all of that go, and rested in Christ? What if we settled within ourselves that Jesus is enough, and the rest is just cake? Like a yummy dessert, cake that is meant to be enjoyed for a time, but not meant to sustain us.

I have found that resting in the premise that Jesus is enough has given me freedom in so many ways. Freedom to enjoy my husband more, freedom to enjoy my family more, freedom to enjoy life more. The closer I grow to Him, the more my life comes into balance.

I find so many applications to life through climbing. By relieving the pressure to perform, I enjoy climbing even more. This in turn makes me a better climber. Think about this in terms of life in general. If you no longer have the pressure to perform, how much more will you enjoy the different aspects of your life: family, job, hobbies, etc. I have found that I actually improve my performance through enjoying life, rather than working at life.

Isn’t it amazing that we serve a God who has given us His all, when we did nothing to deserve it. When I finally began to view my life from this perspective, my will, my desires, and my actions began to fall in line with His perfect will for my life. These other things, even climbing, will bring enjoyment, but will never leave you fulfilled. Living in His will is where you will find complete fulfillment, joy, peace, and rest. So when you contemplate the question, “who you?” renew your thinking and free yourself from the labels that you believe set the standards for you value, and the inadequacies you feel from your past. As a new creation in Christ you are not a mom, a dad, an athlete, a scholar, or a business man. You are also not an addict, a victim, an orphan, or a criminal. The simple answer is, “You are His.”

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you. – Philippians 4:8-9 NIV

So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. – 2 Corinthians 4:18