A Distorted Identity Renewed
Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord; seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence.
2 Peter 1:2, 3
"If our identity in Christ is the key to wholeness," you may ask, "why do so many believers have difficulty with self-worth, spiritual growth and maturity?" Because we have been deceived by the devil. Our true identity in Christ has been distorted by the great deceiver himself.
This deception was brought home to me a few years ago when I was counselling a Christian girl who was the victim of satanic oppression. I asked her, "Who are you?"
"I'm evil," she answered.
"You're not evil. How can a child of God be evil? Is that how you see yourself?" She nodded.
Now she may have done some evil things, but she wasn't evil. She was basing her identity on the wrong equation. She was letting Satan's accusations of her behaviour influence her perception of identity instead of letting her identity—as a child of God in Christ—influence her behaviour.
Sadly, a great number of Christians are trapped in the same pit. We fail, so we see ourselves as a failure, which only causes us to fail more. We sin, so we see ourselves as a sinner, which only causes us to sin more. We've been sucked into the devil's futile equation. We've been tricked into believing that what we do makes us what we are. And that false belief sends us into a tailspin of hopelessness and defeat.
Don't be deceived. You are not a product of what you do or don't do. You are a product of who you are in Christ and His work on the cross. You are not saved by how you behave but by how you believe. God's Word assures us, "Beloved, now we are children of God, and everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure" (1 John 3:2,3).
Let’s Pray: Dear Lord, I pray that my mind will be renewed by Your Word today so I may overcome the old, fleshly programming I have believed and lived by.
Neil T. Anderson is the founder of Freedom in Christ Ministries. He began the ministry in 1989 and continues to spread the message of freedom to this day.