REMEMBER WHO YOU ARE

 1 Peter 2:9

But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.

                 Suanne and I have been reading a series of books called the Wingfeather Saga by Andrew Peterson. The main characters of the saga are a family, consisting of a grandfather, a mother, and three children. The three children are heirs to the throne of a lost kingdom. Where we are in the story, the family has settled in the mother’s home town and are trying to establish a normal life. The children have been enrolled in the local school. But as is often the case, because they are outsiders, the children are facing some significant challenges from their classmates. Every day, as the mother drops the children off for school she says, “Remember who you are.”

                Those words are appropriate for all of us who are followers of Jesus. Each day, as we head off into our part of the world, we need to remind ourselves who we are. It is so easy for us to forget. We begin to see our identity as wrapped up in what we do for work, or what we accomplish, or what difference we make in the world. We allow our identity to be shaped by the society around us. Subtly we begin to conform to the current trends. Our goal becomes to fit in, to not stand out, to not draw undue attention to ourselves. Yet at the same time, we want to be noticed and admired by those around us. We can easily become human chameleons, changing who we are to fit the situation.

                We need to constantly be reminded that we are new creations in Christ. As it says in 2 Corinthians 5:17, Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! We no longer belong to the world in the same way as we did before we came to faith in Christ. Our identity is not found in the world around us, but in our relationship with Christ. We have been transformed.

                One of the things that causes us to conform to the world around us is our need to be accepted. We want to be liked. We want to be appreciated. We want to be loved. So we adjust our lives to fit other people’s expectations of us. What if we didn’t have to do that? What if we could know, without a doubt that we are loved and accepted no matter what those around us think? How would that change the way we live?

                Just as the mother in the Wingfeather Saga tells her children to remember who they are, we too need to remember who we are. We are children of the KING. We are heirs of eternity. And we are loved beyond all measure. Take a moment to reflect upon the truth that you are a child of God.

1 John 3:1

How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.

Romans 8:35-39

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written:

"For your sake we face death all day long;

we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered."

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

        The world defines a person’s identity through the things they own and the things they accomplish. Those are all temporary things that regularly change and in time will all pass away. The quest for identity becomes an illusive goal. But the believer’s identity is secure. It is not subject to the changing nature of our world. It is wrapped up in the person of Jesus Christ. In him we are children of the King of Kings. Nothing that happens to us in this world can change that. So, as you make your way through your day, remember who you are. It will make all the difference in the world.

Ephesians 5:1-2

Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.