By Megan Remer
Your identity goes deep. By definition, it is who you are. Yet most people probably don’t even know what they would say if someone asked. One might say their name. If pushed they might go a little further and say what they do for a living, but it’s not every day that one really reaches beneath the surface to answer such a question. And yet it’s a question on a lot of our minds.
Who am I?
For over a year of my life, I battled this question. Facing obsessive-compulsive disorder, I wanted to be 100-percent certain I knew what kind of person I was. That I was good. That I did the right things. That I was righteous. Some of you reading this might already see the problem.
The emphasis was on me, and as long as my identity was wrapped up in my holy, righteous character, I was always going to fall short. The beautiful thing is we have been given the identity of someone who is perfectly both of those things. Someone who lived a life free of sin and loved more perfectly than any of us ever could. We were given Jesus. When our heavenly Father looks on us, he sees Him in us. That is where our true identity lies—in the person of Jesus and in our relationship with our Good Father. I hope that sinks in for you. As a follower of Jesus you are a sinner who has been redeemed. God calls you by name. He calls you his beloved. What better identity could there be?
So who are you?
There are going to be times in life when you feel more confident in the answer to this question than others. The truth is it doesn’t matter if you are at your worst or best, if you’re totally lost and wavering or have your feet firmly planted on the solid rock that is Christ. As long as you are willing to humble yourself before the Lord and allow Him to do his saving work, you are adopted into His family and you will be forever known as His.