The answer to this question is more important than to any other and now is the time to find your answer. Without knowing who you REALLY are, you cannot live life the way that God intended. This post gives you a chance to ask yourself who am I and explore the answer together.
In my lifetime, there has been no other time as appropriate as now to ask yourself the most important question – who am I?
I am writing this post while COVID-19, an illness caused by a type of coronavirus, spreads in the UK and around the world. In order to stop the pandemic, people have been told to stay at home and avoid any social contact, and self-isolate if they have any of the symptoms.
Now that a lot of us cannot work in a normal way, socialise (often with friends who give us a kind of status or identity), pursue our passions (because all we do is home school and entertain our children), answering this question is more crucial than ever before. If you get the answer right, it will not only help you in the current crisis but in any other that you will face in the future. It will give you a solid foundation to live every day well.
Are you ready to explore this together?
Who a m I?
Let’s start from asking ourselves this question and taking time to answer it honestly.
If you were to answer it in one word or maximum in one sentence, what would you say?
Would you describe yourself by your interests and hobbies? By the colour of your hair? Would you list things like your nationality, gender or your role in the family or a social circle?
Maybe, your answer would be in your name? Or you wouldn’t mention the name at all because that is not what defines you?.
Whatever you say, you will feel that it doesn’t quite describe who you REALLY are.
Is there one answer that says it all? Can we even answer this question in a simple way? While you’re thinking about your own answer, let me share with you some of my thoughts.
Perfect creation
I have asked myself this question over the years and came up with different answers – a student, a wife, a journalist, a mum. But none of them really answered my question which meaning is more about: who I was made to be. I dug a bit deeper.
Throughout the years I’ve found out that the answers to the most important questions are often found in the basics, where everything starts. It’s no different with this significant question.
In the beginning, we were created by God out of love. He created us and said that we were good. God didn’t have to create us but He wanted to.
We are not a random creation – made in haste and just to get
Let this sink in – YOU ARE A MASTERPIECE – the most important work that the Master has ever done. You are a perfect child of almighty God who created the heavens and the earth. Not too much, not too little. From God’s point of view, you are perfect.
It doesn’t mean perfect as without sin but perfect in your design.
You were created in God’s image. He’s breathed his breath into you and you carry the beauty, magnificence and goodness that
We were created as God’s co-labourers and companions. We are his friends.
This friendship is not conditional. God is a friend who is always there and does not fall out with you just because you said something mean to Him. In this friendship, you have everything you need – emotionally, spiritually and physically.
The fall
The humankind didn’t quite appreciate the value of all that and with the first sin rejected all of that and chose to define itself. That’s why we struggle so much with our identity these days – we try to define ourselves by the place of our birth, our appearance, type of work or how much money we’ve got. Not with the things which came at the beginning of the creation.
Throughout our life, the world around us tells us something opposite to God’s truth. As ironic as it is, we’re more inclined to believe the world’s lies than God’s truth.
But Friends, what God says is the truth. We’re not defined by social status, money, where we live etc. We’re God’s creation at our core. We were just that even before the world saw us and before we had any role assigned to us
But even before I was born, God chose me and called me by his marvellous grace.
Galatians 1:15
“I knew you before I formed you in your mother’s womb. Before you were born I set you apart and appointed you as my prophet to the nations.”
Jeremiah 1:5 NLT
Restoration
Jesus came so that we may believe once again who we really are. Sin separated us from God and from our God-given identity but Jesus gave
If we believe in Him and what he’s done, we’re accepted by God as blameless, free of guilt, His holy children, once again.
We’re again his friends. His beloved perfect creation.
This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person.
F
Ready for anything
What does that mean in our own everyday life?
It means that we can wake up every morning knowing who we are, where do we come from and whose we are.
It means that in whatever mood or in whatever circumstances we wake up, our identity does not change. And when we declare it and believe in it, we instantly connect to God in spirit – and He is the source of love, security and acceptance. Knowing that we have all of that because of whom we believe in, sets us up for the rest of the day.
Whatever we come across, we will not be shaken because our foundation is strong. We need to live believing that these things that God says about us ARE true. And then apply this knowledge in everyday life when other people, things happening around us or our own thoughts are trying to tell us something else.
Understanding who we were made at the very beginning is SO important. It’s the beginning of
Strong foundation
I believe that I’m able to go through the current situation with coronavirus lockdown and self-isolation only because I know who I am. Knowing my true identity helps me to adapt to any situation because my foundation is strong.
Even before the current crisis, it was only when I realised who am I and how God sees me that I started accepting myself, loving God and following Him every day.
As many of you know, I am a doer and when I couldn’t do the things I wanted, I would get upset and feel like there’s no point in life. Now that I know who I am, I start every day in the right place and even on the days that life doesn’t go to my plan, I feel secure, satisfied and happy. I cannot tell you enough how finding my true God-given identity has transformed the way I think and live.
It wouldn’t be possible without two resources – “Captivating” by John and Stasi Eldredge and Freedom in Christ course. The first one was the beginning of the journey – it showed me the truth but also helped to deal with rubbish from the past. The second reinforced the truth and helped me to live it out every day.
If you’re struggling with your identity and accepting yourself I cannot recommend these two enough.
To know who you really are according to God is so freeing. Knowing this will open up so many other things in life to you. You’ll see everyday life and its purpose from a different perspective and will experience the
What’s YOUR answer?
However we answer the question about our identity, the answer will not say the whole truth. The truth that the One who created us says about each and one of us. Because God doesn’t define us by the role(s) we play in life, where we are born or what job we do. He looks at us the way He created us at the beginning of things. And He knows what the author had in mind when creating His masterpiece.