'Our truest identity isn’t something we create or build ourselves'

Accomplishments in life are good things. They often times speak to the hard work and the dedication we have put in to some project, some venture, some mission. We all want to succeed at what we do, and perhaps get the accolades that come along with success – that pat on the back, that bonus in salary, or some other reward. It is only a natural human response to the efforts we put in to whatever it might be.

But where we get in trouble is when we allow our successes to define who we are; when we allow them to give us our identity. People often create their identity on their successes and their greatest moments. Equally as dangerous as being nothing more than our worst moment, is an identity based on success because it is both fragile and fleeting. A moment or an achievement of success does not fully define us, as it likely won’t endure and it can be eclipsed by the accomplishments of others.

While failure is an event, success is a process, not the end game. Anything you may have achieved can be lost. Again, others can exceed you.

Our doing does not equal our being

And even our best performances – as wonderful as they may be, are still external actions – even if they are done “in the name of Jesus.”  Our doing does not equal our being. We are always more than any good we do, even on our best day.  One moment of success or a season of success can never define who we are.  It would be a false identity – one we have created ourselves.

I have accomplished many things both in my life and in my ministry. Imagine if I were to cling to them as if they were the most important things in my life, and I allowed them to define me. How could I then be open to any innovation of what the Lord wants to do through me? I would be trapped in the past, and not living in the hopeful expectation of a future that I cannot yet see that is in the mind of God. In other words, would I be open to God’s imagination, creativity, and most importantly to his grace?

We are defined by God’s grace. In other words, having been created in God’s image and likeness, out of love, reveals to the world that we are not the sum of our weakness, nor are we the sum of our successes. Both are fleeting, while our true identity can never be taken away, and can never be diminished.

Our truest identity isn’t something we create or build ourselves. It’s a gift we receive whereby we become adopted children of God, partakers of his divine nature, given a new life in Christ, becoming a co-heir with him and a temple of the Holy Spirit.

Friends, this is our true identity. Through this gift, we belong, no longer to ourselves, but to Christ who died and rose for us.

Your deepest identity is in him – in Christ Jesus

Take some time with the Lord in prayer over this next week and reflect upon how we may have bought into the lie that “I am nothing less than my best moment.”  Ask Jesus to deepen in your heart the truth that your deepest identity is in him – in Christ Jesus.

Pray with John 1:11-13 – “But to all who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.”

And 1 Peter 2:9 – “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.”