Okay folks, let’s talk about identity here. There seems to be an identity crisis going on in the world. I cannot pinpoint exactly when it started, but it is something that needs to be addressed. So many people, especially younger people, are running around having no idea what they are doing or who they are. This is pushing them towards questioning of gender, sexuality, purpose, meaning of life, and position in the world. Everyone is having this meltdown over this, and it’s time to talk about it here. So, let’s go.
What is your identity? I am warning you in advance that I am going to get real passionate on this subject. If that is something you cannot handle you should probably go. There will be a lot of visualizing of clapping hands.
First off, you were/are not a mistake. You are not ugly. You are not a combination of atoms that suddenly became a creature.
You were created. You have a purpose. You were not an afterthought or unintended.
For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. ~ Psalm 139:13-14
God knit you together in your mother’s womb. I am not sure if you have ever tried knitting but it is a difficult process. There are so many stitches and it is so grueling and long. I remember one time when I was like eight and I was at my Oma’s house, and she decided to teach me to knit. I was so excited! It was something that she had always done, and it intrigued me. Who wouldn’t want to be able to make their own scarves?
Fast forward three hours, and I had like four lines of stitching done
Long story short, I gave up. It took so long and I still did not have a masterpiece created.
Imagine how much longer it would take to create someone as extravagant as you! With your beautiful hair and unique eyes. A fingerprint that belongs to you only. You are not some carbon copy or some wonder of nature (in the sense of evolution or spontaneous life). You are a created, purposefully painted masterpiece. God created you wonderful and He made you perfectly as He did.
So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. ~ Genesis 1:27
Now this is the part in the post where I may get some backlash. If you want to come for me, go ahead, but I’m going to say what I say nonetheless. You were created male or female. You were not created male to be female, or female to be male, or to be in between these two things in a countless circle of different possibilities. God created you male, OR, female. Period. What your biological sex is matters. It is part of your identity and it is not something that can be changed simply because you want it to. He created you that way for a reason. Not as a curse or as something to hurt you, but because He knew and knows what is best for you. He knew that there needed to be a woman named Ashley born in Canada, when I was, and the same goes for you.
He created you in His image. He created you as who you are for a reason. Perfect. He did not make a mistake or put you in the wrong category. He created you as a son or daughter. If God created us in His image, you better believe that we are beautiful and immaculate. God is the Creator of the Universe. He will be the greatest thing that we could ever behold. Even if we are not physically similar, our personalities and attributes mirror His.
He made you funny. He made you intuitive. He made you curious. He created in you a deep sympathy or a heart for loving people. Male or female, He created you the way He created you because He knew that that would be the perfect you. Be confident in this fact. Who you are, is good. Are you weird? GREAT! God’s probably a little weird too. We are all are. There is nothing to be ashamed of in that. You take a hold of the quirks in your personality and you run with it. God made you special.
God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day. ~ Genesis 1:31
You are not ugly. You are not awful. You are not scum or dirt or something disgusting like a bug on a windshield. God saw Humankind, He saw YOU, and he said you were very good. He loves you. Do not believe that you are bad or evil or inherently awful. He said you were good and He proclaims that over you.
For God showed His own great love for us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. ~ Romans 5:8
You ARE worthy. Not because of an action or inaction, but because God made you worthy and He says that you are worth the pain and shame He suffered on the cross. This is my life verse. It is something I have on the necklace I always wear and the mug that I drink from. It is a constant reminder to me that it does not matter what I do, that I will never be unworthy. Christ knew that we were sinners. He knew that we made mistakes and bad choices. He knew about the drunkenness, the lies, the sex, the drugs, the hate, the anger, the cheating, the stealing, the swearing, the running away, everything and still He said that He would die for us. Because He loves us.
Even if only one of us accepted Him, He still would have taken the death of the cross.
Your worth and your value IS NOT undermined by the actions taken against you or by you. It does not matter how many people you’ve slept with, how many times you’ve gotten drunk. It doesn’t matter how many times you have run away. It does not matter how many times you watched porn, or how many times you fell down and struggled to get back up. Your worth and value is a fixed factor. You are worth the blood of the only perfect human being who ever walked this earth, who endured the most painful death you could possibly imagine, and who still through all of this, did not remove themselves from their suffering even though they could. You are worth more than Gold, and everything on this earth. You are priceless.
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! ~ 2 Corinthians 5:17
Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. ~ Colossians 3:2-3
You are made new in Christ. When you dedicate yourself to the Lord and repent, He renews you. That old dirt? It’s washed away by the blood of the Lamb. We are told that our sins are like crimson, but the blood of Jesus washes us clean as snow. This is true. You are new in Christ. Everything that held you back before does not hold you back in Christ. You have the power to break chains. In Christ, as part of your identity, you are a chain breaker. You are powerful. The only things that have power against you are the things you allow to.
For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. ~ Ephesians 2:10
You have a purpose. Life is not meaningless! You were created for a reason, for this time, for this place. It may not always feel like it, and sometimes it’s dreadful, but you have a purpose. God has a plan. You are not here by mistake and life has a point.
Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God. ~ John 1:12
You are a child of God! You are not only a servant or a creation, but His child. He adopts you as His own. That means He will protect you. He will nurture you. He will provide for you. He is watching over you. When I think of God as a Father, I always think of myself as being able to step back in the scary or hard times, and simply feel him against my shoulder. He is watching our backs. He is there to give us hugs and to help us along the way. To challenge us. To grow us. We are His children. He loves you. So much.
I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. ~ John 15:15
You are a friend to Christ and He is a friend to you. Which means you can trust Him. You can tell Him your secrets and your feelings, and He will listen to you. He is there no matter the time or place! At 3 in the morning in bed, or 5 PM at the dinner table. You can call out to Him and He will come to you.
For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin. ~ Romans 6:6
You are not a slave. You are not trapped. There is nothing that can hold you down. You have the power to break past it. There is nothing that people or the devil can enslave you to.
Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. ~ Romans 8:1
You are not condemned. Jesus does not view you as used goods or as damaged. He does not view your baggage and let it define you. He sees you as His friend, His sister, His brother. He sees you as the masterpiece that God created you to be. He sees the final product of God’s knitting. The beauty and individuality in you. You do not have to be ashamed or afraid, because Jesus can see all. He sees your beautiful heart and He sees the soul hidden underneath everything. All that has been hurt or cut, is healed in front of Him.
Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God. ~ Romans 15:7.
Christ accepts you. God does. You are accepted. You are not isolated and alone, but part of a greater family of people. All that you think holds you back from God, He welcomes. He accepts all and He wants to help you out of it and to help you grow to become confident in who you are and your identity.
Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many. Now if the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body. The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it. Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it. ~ 1 Corinthians 12:12-27
You are important. You are not some minuscule person in a world of 6 billion people. You have a purpose, you are a part of a whole. Do not call yourself unimportant. You are an incredible person. Out of gazillions of people that God could create, He created you for this time. He has made you important. You cannot say that because you possess a certain trait or you have gone through something, that you aren’t. Every part of a body is important. Even cutting off the pinky toe, can lead to balancing problems. You are more important than you know.
There will be some who will try to tell you otherwise. Satan would like nothing more than to make you question the very person that God has made you into. He would love for you to suffer and diminish your own worth and ruin yourself. He does not get that right. God’s truth speaks louder than the devils lies.
You are loved. You are smart. You are beautiful. You are strong. You are brilliant. You are perceptive. You can do it. You will do it. You are a conqueror. Most importantly, you are a child of God. He has called you His own and He has so many amazing things planned for you. That is your identity.
Lord, thank you for calling us your own. Thank you for creating each and every one of us special. Thank you that humans are like snowflakes. Out of the millions, there is not one the same. Thank you for your creativity and your love for us. Father, I pray that you would instill our identities. Reinforce them. When the devil and the world try to come against it, give us the strength to fight it off. We know who we are in you. I pray that you would remind your children of the love you have for them. Of the amazing complexities that you have sewn into them. Help us to understand our strengths and our value, even when it is hard.
In Jesus’ name,
Amen.
Thank you for reading. I truly hope you have finished this blog post of with a renewed understanding of who you are. Own it. God bless, have a great week.
~ Ashley
P.S. I love you all beautiful creations.
A Light in The Darkness 