Here is an excerpt out of my daily devotion book "Every Day with Jesus".
"The secret of my identity is hidden in the love and mercy of God... Therefore I cannot hope to find myself anywhere except in Him." -Thomas Merton
"We take another promotion, seeking status in our work. We build bigger nest eggs (or I say "barns"), seeking power in our money. We take exotic vacations, seeking adventure in our trips. We relieve our past through our children, seeking a lost youth."
"We are looking for ourselves as though we were searching for hidden treasure. Yet our gift is the presence of Jesus. Consider his love to us. Despite our faults, he runs to us. Seeing our sin, he forgives us. Knowing we deserve death, he grants us life. Our identity is hidden in the love and mercy of God. In him, our veneers of self-preservation are sanded off; the scaffolding of stuff to hold is removed. We are loved (and redeemed) by God. What better gift could you find? Receive it as your own."
Where do you find your identity? Is it in physical appearance, material things, approval of others, success, busyness, perfectionism, past, etc.? We are told in Phil 3: 8 to count these things as NOTHING compared to knowing Jesus the Lord. The Bible also says to SEEK GOD FIRST, and THEN these things will be added to you as well (Matthew 6:33). Take time this week to notice who, what, and where you choose to put your identity.
"The secret of my identity is hidden in the love and mercy of God... Therefore I cannot hope to find myself anywhere except in Him." -Thomas Merton
"We take another promotion, seeking status in our work. We build bigger nest eggs (or I say "barns"), seeking power in our money. We take exotic vacations, seeking adventure in our trips. We relieve our past through our children, seeking a lost youth."
"We are looking for ourselves as though we were searching for hidden treasure. Yet our gift is the presence of Jesus. Consider his love to us. Despite our faults, he runs to us. Seeing our sin, he forgives us. Knowing we deserve death, he grants us life. Our identity is hidden in the love and mercy of God. In him, our veneers of self-preservation are sanded off; the scaffolding of stuff to hold is removed. We are loved (and redeemed) by God. What better gift could you find? Receive it as your own."
Where do you find your identity? Is it in physical appearance, material things, approval of others, success, busyness, perfectionism, past, etc.? We are told in Phil 3: 8 to count these things as NOTHING compared to knowing Jesus the Lord. The Bible also says to SEEK GOD FIRST, and THEN these things will be added to you as well (Matthew 6:33). Take time this week to notice who, what, and where you choose to put your identity.
John 1:12 - Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.
Colossians 2:13-14 - When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having cancelled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross.
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.
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