So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.- Galatians 4:7
I don't feel like our identity is something that too many of us think about a lot. If someone were to ask me about my identity or simply ask me the question "Who are you?" I could come up with a lot of different answers. My name is Camp, I'm an Auburn student, a Young Life Leader, a gardener, and the list could go on and on. The thing is that none of those things tell you anything about my identity. They tell you my name, and what I do. None of them tell you who I am.
This word identity is something I have been learning a lot about over the past week or so, and it is something that the Lord has definitely spoken to me about. It really started when I saw a picture that showed arrows going like this: Father>Obedience>Identity. This is the way that the majority of people live I feel like. We think that if we are good enough that we can get to the Father, and when He decides that we have been good enough that He will bestow His identity on us. With this all of the pressure is on us to be good, to do it on our own. This is so oppresive to all of us because we will never be good enough. The way the arrows go in reality is like this: Father>Identity>Obedience. The Father, through Jesus, has given us an identity as sons and daughters- "You are my son, and with you I am well pleased."- and through that our natural tendency is to live a life of obedience to Him. With this model our identity comes not from what we can do, but from what Jesus has done for us.
This past week I was thinking about this a lot, and as I dove deeper and deeper into this truth I really felt the Lord saying to me, "Camp, you can't do it. But I can." That is a relief to a guy like me. I'm a doer. The type of person that, if I see a problem, I try to find a way to fix it. After I realized all of this I felt the Lord inviting me to stop doing so much and just come be with Him and rest in His presence. So on Saturday I spent a lot of time alone just reading and listening.
I was reading the gospel of John, one of my favorites, and I got to chapter 5. In the second half of the chapter Jesus is just ripping the Pharisees a new one because they were trying to kill him because he called himself the Son of God, which made him equal with God. So Jesus went on a rant about how the Father has given him authority and that his witness is true, and then he really started getting on the Pharisees about how they search the Scriptures because they think that in them they get eternal life, when Jesus is really the one that gives life. Then I came to verse 44, and it hit me like a freight train.
"How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God?"- John 5:44
Not gonna lie, that one stung a little bit. He is telling me that I am finding my identity in the approval of other people and not in Him. That was really hard for me to hear, but He was speaking a word of grace into me and it was so relieving. I will never be fulfilled seeking the approval of other people. I need to live into the identity that He has for me.
"And a voice came from heaven, 'You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.'"- Mark 1:9
That is my identity, and every day I will choose to live in that truth. I am His son, and He is well pleased with me.
