This weekend is going to be a very exciting and busy weekend. Its time again for D-now at our church. D-now stands for Discipleship Now, and is a fun filled weekend for our youth group. They stay at host homes, and have a leader come in an do the Bible study, and they meet back up at the church at various times for Worship and fun. This last all weekend. I have the priviledge of having 8th grade girls at my house. We are gonna have some fun. :) The theme for D-Now is "Identity" more specifically your Identity in Christ. So the other day after one of our meetings for D-Now, I received this devotional. God knows just the right thing to say. :)
God, please be with all the youth, host homes, and leaders involved with D-Now. I know that you have big plans for this weekend and I just pray that we will be open to your word. That we will see you and that the kids will feel you and be moved. Show them who you would have them to be.
Amen
Identity In Christ by Jon Walker
“I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” (Galatians 2:20 NIV)
God spoke you into your mother's womb at just the right time for you to be here now. It wasn’t by accident, nor was it a pleasant surprise to God; he designed you on purpose to be on mission with him for such a time as this.
Your faith will grow stronger as you focus on your identity in Christ. What this means is that you abandon any image of yourself that is not from God. You stop believing what others have said about you; you stop believing how others have labeled you; you stop accepting how others have defined you.
Where I’m going is here – if you don’t know who you are, then you’re vulnerable to other people telling you who you are. But the concrete, solid, gospel truth is that you are who God says you are and no one else has a vote in the matter.
You are now identified with Christ and have the power of the Holy Spirit within you. You are God’s precious child and he created you in a way that pleases him.
This “identity issue” is an important part of living the abundant life. Jesus was able to face the incredible demands of his mission because he’d settled this identity issue. He knew exactly who he was; he knew that he mattered immensely to his Heavenly Father, and that gave him confidence to move purposefully in faith.
What does this mean?
God wants you to be you – You can relax knowing that being yourself is exactly what God wants of you. A pencil brings glory to God by being a pencil. But, if you take a pencil and try to use it like a screwdriver, it won’t work and you’ll likely break the pencil. You will find the stress drained from your life when you stop trying to be somebody you’re not and instead start being who God purposefully designed you to be.- Believe God calls you by name – God didn’t call you as part of a blanket invitation; he called you specifically by name. You are his masterpiece, a work of his own hands. Like many earthly fathers, God feels pleasure when he sees you just being you.
- Believe you are who God says you are – No one else has a vote on who you are. You are free to be you instead of imitating someone else. You are free to use your unique, God-given gifts and there is no need to compare your gifts to the gifts of others. No one else is in competition to be you!
Question to consider: Where are the places in your life where you’re still trying to be someone other than who God shaped you to be?
© 2008 Purpose Driven Life. All rights reserved. Pastor Jon Walker is a writer for http://www.gracecreates.com/
1 comment:
I used to do Discipleship Now weekends when I was in High School! They were so much fun! WOW...8th grade girls...you will have a crazy house :-).
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