Do we know who we are?

Do we truly know who we are in Christ?   Do we actually show any real evidence that we do?  I am sure many of us can say that we show several of the following traits:

• We show evidence of profound words and teaching to others, speak truth in the tongues of men and angels........    Yet, we rise up in anger at our brother, making as as guilty as any murderer.  
• We show evidence of knowing the scripture and associated doctrine and all knowledge.........   Yet, we do not love the lowest person as Christ, making our knowledge worthless.....
• We give all of our possessions to the poor and surrender our bodies to be burned and actually have faith to move mountains and heal the sick........  Yet these profit us nothing if His love does not rule our hearts.
• We call ourselves born again, having been baptized in the water and the Spirit.   We are consistently take communion, sing in choirs, serve the church, pay tithes, read the scriptures, fast when called to humble ourselves, gathering in Bible studies, attending conferences, going on missions, submitting to authorities, and rehearsing our arguments......   Yet, if rivers of love, joy and peace do not flow from us like living waters, all of the above mentioned things profit us nothing.  

If you can identify with any of the above, if you feel like you are still missing something, you likely are.    

While it has been said that self-involvement and selfishness are the root of man's problems, I would submit to you that it is more likely pride that keeps us from being who we are meant to be in God.   What do I mean by that?   Well, we are all insecure to varying degrees.   We are insecure because it is born into us.   From the moment we are born, and the doctor cuts our umbilical cord, we are in a state where we were warm, well taken care of and felt loved into an alien world that feel hostile.   We are cold, may be hungry and are trying to figure out how we can get back to the place where we feel loved.  Not that any of us can remember this far back, but I can easily see ourselves frantically screaming, "Who is going to take care of me?   Who is going to keep me warm?   Who is going to protect me?   Who is going to feed me?   Who will love me?"   All of these things likely culminated in our screaming and crying at the top of our lungs.   

This likely isn't so different from the feelings Adam and Eve experienced after they had been expelled from the Garden of Eden.   You see, the sin of Adam and Eve resulted in being cut off from the only life source that they had ever known.   At that moment, all of our spiritual umbilical cords had been cut.   This has resulted in a deep insecurity, which aches in all of us from the sin that separates /separated us from Jesus.  

As such, we find ourselves unable to fully embrace our identity.   We search for not only our identity but also acceptance and love by finding other ways to reach what we so desperately need.   We determine our significance based on other peoples perspectives of us.   We find ourselves thinking: 

• If I can only do well in sports.   If I could excel, then I will be honored.
• If I can do well in school, I can measure up to the expectations of my teachers and parents.
• If I did well in romantic relationships, if this one person loves me, I will have found love.
• If I achieve wealth, if I can just land this new job and climb the corporate ladder, then I will have security.  

We find ourselves chasing after our identities and who we are by following society's blueprint.   And what many of us find, some because we have reached some of the above stated things, is that we are still lacking.   There is something inauthentic about the blueprint that we are following, because no matter how hard we try, no matter how much we gain or how much love and acceptance we gain from the world, it is never enough.   

Why is that?   It is because God created us to find our love and value in Him, not apart from Him!   We have forgotten who we are in Christ!  You see, it is as Jesus taught, that I am in Him and He is in me, in the same way that He is in the Father and the Father is in Him.   This is a profound union that He said could only be known with the help of the Spirit of truth, whose main purpose is to help us walk in that union.   If we do that, then we will show evidence of it but the love we show, as it will be a direct reflection of the love He has shown for us.  

You see, many of us in trying to be good christians are still living in our sin while professing that we are in Christ.   We miss the point that Christ has covered our sins and that we should literally be dying to our old way of life and letting go of our old sinful behavior.   We should not still be saying things along the lines of, "sure, I still have my vices, but at least I'm not like so and so sitting over there.   That should be worth something - right?"   That would be wrong.  Because in doing that we are still denying Christ control of our lives.   It is Him that is supposed to live in us - not the other way around!   You see, as christians, for me to live is Christ - just as Paul said.   To fully gain the love, security and happiness we are all so desperately yearning for we have to let go of our pride.  To do that, we have to let go of ourselves and let God have control.    We have to live lives of courage and realize that God is the same God that he was yesterday, today and tomorrow and that He is fully in control.    

Until we do that, we will continue to deny who we were created to be.   Until we realize that humility a major key to finding deep security and joy in Christ, we will continue to grope around in the darkness.