Who Am I in Christ?

I am nothing. I am nobody. I'm not important. If they really knew me, they wouldn't like me. God doesn't care about me. If He did, then why are these things happening (or happened) to me? I'm not good enough. God is disappointed in me. God is not blessing me.  God is punishing me.

I've heard all of these comments in therapy with people more often than I can recall, and it breaks my heart, and more importantly, it breaks God's heart.

Hear me loud and clear - they're all lies from the enemy to immobilize you, draw you away from God, and ruin your witness!

Ok, I hear you. "But you don't know me." I don't have to. I know God, and I know that what He says about you in His word is true for you as well as it is for me and everyone else in His family.

How can I be so sure about that? Because it's not about us. It's about Him.

The Bible is filled with "do this" and "don't do that" kinds of commandments, right? You read those verses and know you fall way short. So do I. So does every Bible-believing Christian on the face of the planet. We can't do it, and God has known that since the foundation of the world, and that's why He sent Jesus.

So why, then, does He tell us to do all of those things? Why does He tell me to turn the other cheek? Go the extra mile? Forgive seventy-times-seven?

Why? Because He does.  He wants us to know who He is, and He spells it out in His word by inviting us to experience Him through obedience. He is revealing Himself and His character to us with each command. Jesus turned the other cheek when He was being beaten. He went the extra mile when He came to earth in the first place. And He forgives us seventy-times-seventy-times-seventy again. He would never, ever ask us to do something that He, Himself, doesn't do.

He is setting the example, and then inviting us to join Him there. He knows we can't do it from our own strength, but the more we know Him, the more we will fall in love with Him, the more we will want to be like Him, the more we will spend time with Him and allow ourselves to be dependent upon Him and the Holy Spirit. Then, the more we will push our own pride, lust, and selfishness aside to let His character qualities manifest themselves in our lives.

The more we see Him for who He really is, the more we will desire to be like Him more than we want what we want.

So, go back to the first paragraph. What does all of that have to do with my feelings of worthlessness?

When we feel worthless, we are saying that we don't live up to some standard we've invented.  We see ourselves as letting ourselves and God down.  We feel shame, guilt, bondage.  Satan loves it.

God knows who we are and His very nature is to love us anyway.  He can't help Himself, and it's not because of who we are.  It's about Him, and it's to glorify Himself by loving the unlovable.  He knows you, and loves you anyway.  Your failures are no surprise to Him.  What He wants from us is to hunger and thirst after righteousness.  He knows we can't be righteous.  Our righteousness is imputed to us through the blood of Christ.  We are to hunger and thirst for Christ.  Our holiness is a function of our proximity to and special purpose for God - not our behavior.  His commands are not to make us feel guilty about our failures - they are to introduce us to the immutable, eternal, perfect God.

You can't earn it, you don't deserve it, you can't lose it.  He loves you, and there's nothing you can do about it.

Because of that love (not to earn it!), lean on Him and be a good witness, glorify Him with your life, and bring others with you.

Watch the following videos if you want more:

Grace and Mercy, gifts from God Part 1
Grace and Mercy, gifts from God Part 2

Be at peace, and know the love of God,


Sue