WEEK ONE: WHO AM I?

Who Am I? Who are you?  These are questions every one of us have asked ourselves or another person at some point in our lives. We spend a lifetime figuring the answer out, and in many cases, we change (or try to change) the answer to that question several times throughout our lives. You’ve probably known someone that has attempted to change who they are multiple times so they can fit in or belong to a certain group. They do it by changing the type of clothes they wear, by talking a certain way, or by going to certain places. In most cases though, that fad will be short-lived; in a short period of time, they will be trying to redefine their identity to the next new thing.

Unfortunately, our culture says that identity is self-created, driven by feelings, or socially assigned. So we chase after an identity based on who we want to surround ourselves with. But we were never intended to take our identity from culture or from what we want it to be based on our feelings or who we want to be with. Identity fuels our relationships, and this ultimately will determine how we love others.

When we don’t know who we are, we will never know how to love. Our attempts to love become distorted and self-serving. If we are trying to form our identity by becoming like a group we want to be part of, we can change the way we relate to others. We can begin to use our love and acceptance as a leverage tool to get what we want, rather than loving someone because of who they are.

1 John 4:19 says, “We love because he first loved us.” We are the only part of God’s creation that was created in his image, and we are the only part of his creation that he states was “very good.” It was God’s love for us that moved him to provide a way back to him in spite of our sin and brokenness. So our ability to genuinely love another person is only born out of the fact that God loved us first, and we learn how to love through the model of God’s love toward us.

Here is the secret: quit chasing after social norms and shifting cultural definitions. Settle yourself in Christ and who God says you are. Spend some time reading what God’s Word says about you and stop listening to what the world says you are. Because when you know who you are in Christ, you can love others as he loves you.