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Introduction
If you have ever been there, in the middle of a struggle with temptation, then you understand the powerful difference it makes when your focus is on the right place. That struggle, failure, and triumph is what “remembering my identity” is all about. I hope it encourages and blesses your soul.
The Struggle
Again… Here I was, trying to find a different way to ask God’s forgiveness than I had last time…and the time before that…and the day before that…I felt like I was beginning to sound like a broken record. How could I make the same mistake again and again…and again? What was wrong with me? I kept telling myself that I would never say that, do that, think that again. I mean I knew better, right? But here I was, guilty of the same thing….again. I didn’t even know where to start.
I just shrugged, wishing I knew how to tell God I was tired of this whole struggle against sin, temptation, wrongdoing. How to tell God I just wanted to give up. I mean, if I was going to fall no matter how hard I tried not to, why did it matter? I felt ashamed as soon as the thought crossed my mind. Of course I couldn’t give up. But something had to.
I finally started my prayer with the question that plagued my mind, “God, what is wrong with me?” Followed by it’s twin, “Why do I keep doing this?” I fell silent. I hesitated to ask His forgiveness this time. From my perspective I could just imagine that God was just as sick and tired as I was of the same old, same old.
The Reminder of My Identity
And that’s when God grabbed my attention. And brought it to one word. I stared at the word written across my mind. Perspective. It took a split second before I realized its significance. The question wasn’t what was wrong with me, it was what was wrong with my perspective.
I recalled all those times where I wondered how I could do that, when I wanted differently. Say that, when I knew differently. And all this time I came face to face with the spirit and the flesh warring against one another within me and I had been struggling with who I was. Was I the one who read the Bible, prayed and held high moral values, or was I the one who held grudges, and said and did things that, no matter how “minor” were just plain sinful?
Who was I? I had begun to doubt that I could be His if I did those things. I began to lose sight of my other identity and started thinking that my sin made me a sinner and that’s who I was. That was the perspective that was wrecking my relationship with God. I had been crying out to God to rescue me from the downward spiral of helplessness I felt against this unavoidable premise that I could do nothing to stop myself from giving into my fleshly desires. But I hadn’t been listening to what He was trying to tell me all this time.
Until today. I finally heard His voice, reminding me of who I really was. Changing my perspective. Renewing my hope.
And this is what I want to share with you. I purposely didn’t specify certain sins because anyone can be dealing with any kind of sin or struggle unique to them. It doesn’t matter what it is, the only thing that matters is the perspective. Remembering your real identity.
One thing I realized about me personally is that I am a very present-oriented person. I’m not living with the future in mind most of the time, and when trying to think of something’s eternal significance my mind goes completely blank.
I have always thought that if I could just be different, just be a visionary person that can keep eternity in my mind all the time then maybe when faced with temptations I would weigh them in the light of eternity and realize that no temptation is worth my time. But alas! I cannot seem to get a grasp of the concept of eternity.
The Truth About My Identity
So this perspective, this earth-shattering advanced theology I am talking about is this: I have been redeemed. Now I belong to God. And I am no longer a slave to sin. Because the Savior bought me. WOW! Isn’t that something? Once I remembered that, I turned my skewed perspective on it’s head. Several key concepts and life-changing truths came from this. I won’t list them in order but here they are.
We are not sinners because we sin; we sin because we are sinners. You cannot imagine how freeing that was for me to be reminded of that. I was already a sinner when God saved me and gave me a new identity and falling into sin cannot change my identity in Christ.
What you do should not dictate who you are. Who you are should dictate what you do. The first one and this one go hand in hand. No identity crisis is necessary, no temptation too strong, if we only identify ourselves with Christ and remember we are NOT that temptation, that sin. We are the redeemed of the Lord and Christ made us free to live in Him as such. Which leads me to the third one.
Take your focus off your sin and keep it on the Savior because He has made you more than a conqueror in Him who loves you and gave Himself for you. I had been staring down at the dirty stains instead of up at my Redeemer and it destroyed my perspective. And in turn I gave into the temptation beat myself up over it and condemn me, when Jesus was only extending His nail-scarred hand in forgiveness.
Then I realized that while I knew that I needed to love everyone just as God had loved me, somewhere along the lines everyone had somehow excluded me. So the forgiveness and grace I gave to everyone else, I kept from myself. I only had judgment and condemnation for me. But God makes no exceptions to the meaning of everyone and neither should we.
As easy as it is to fall into the trap of pointless berating and condemnation, it leads to basically exalting the sin and losing sight of God’s redeeming grace. The whole concept of this in and of itself is an entirely different topic that I won’t go into it here.
The Eternal Perspective
Last, but not least is the subject of eternity. While I don’t know if I can communicate this in a way that makes sense, I will try. I have always thought of eternity as some far away concept. Somehow separate from the present. But it’s not. We are eternal beings, and though heaven and earth are two separate entities, eternity is not. Every moment we live is part of eternity. And it has eternal impact.
With that in mind, I can live every moment with eternal value in my sight because we are living in eternity right now. Our bodies may be temporal, but who we are, our spirits, are not. So live the moment and make it count for eternity.
I know that now and again we lose sight of the mark of the prize of the high calling of Jesus, and we all fall along the way. And sometimes we forget the simple truth that we are not our own, but our lives are hidden in God. And we are prone to taking our eyes off the things above and setting them on the earthly things we can see. Especially ourselves.
Whenever that happens remember what our Savior sees when He looks upon His children. And let that identity in Christ bring you back to grace. For in the words of my favorite poem by Jack Shuler,
“For the past can be forgotten By the One who is omniscient; All the past can be as never– And the future is forever– To the One is omniscient.
And the past and present faded in the light of the eternal; And the future was a torch that Lighted all the way His footsteps Went–and marked the place where mortal Sank to dust beneath the cross-piece
And eternal God, blood-blinded, Staggered meekly to the summit As a Lamb, born for the altar, Walks in meekness to the slaughter.
Thus He walked, this God-omniscient… For, since God is God-omniscient Time blends into the eternal; And beyond the place of suff’ring He beheld a host, pure, blood-washed, Crowning Him in adoration In that Kingdom of Tomorrow!
And their song was to His tribute Who would mingle tears and blood drops On a starlit cross of anguish On a starlit hill called Calv’ry. So He smiled the smile of triumph, For He was God-omniscient…
For a related article on how our identity in Christ should shape our fight against sin, click here.
To read more on the topic of faith, visit my page at https://www.thoughtspirations.com/faith/.
