Our Real Identity

Band of Brothers help me celebrate my 70th.

God speaking: I don’t want your sacrifice, I want your love. I don’t want your burnt offerings, I just want you to know me. Let us press on to know God. Hosea 6:6,3 LB

One of the benefits of knowing God more deeply is seeing ourselves from His perspective. Not only the “Woe is me” of Isaiah 6, but who we are as image-bearers of the Creator of the Universe.

What comes to mind when I ask “What is your identity - who are you?” Who are you – without giving your name or what you do, who are you?

We live out our self-perception. We act as we think. “As a man thinks in his heart so is he.” Prov.23:7 Now if that were completely true, when I was in high school, I would have been a basketball or a girl.

However, in general, as a man thinks, so is he. We live out our self perception. A person who thinks poorly of himself either has a very obvious low self esteem, self-denigrating, or he covers it up with a cocky, know it all attitude.

How are we supposed to think of ourselves? Some would tell us we are basically evil; others say we are basically good. Some would declare that we're nothing but an animal in evolution. The new age movement tells us we are God.

What do you say you are? Even self perception is not the answer, because it can be twisted. I once counseled a woman who said she was bionic and could leap over tall buildings. I wanted to affirm her so said to her, “Really? You can leap over tall buildings?” “Yes,” she said. I exclaimed with feigned great excitement, “Let me see you do it.” “Oh,” she stated, “I can’t now. I’m not wired up.”

Self perception is not the answer. More realistically, what does God say man is? Genesis 1:27-28 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground."

What does this tell us about man? We are:
Image bearers of God;
Of infinite value;
loved by God;
Esteemed by God; and,
Empowered by God for dominance of creation

More tomorrow on our real identity.