Who Do You Think You Are?

Identity. It's the buzzword of the moment, but I've been addressing the battle for identity for years.*
Identity is who we believe we are. It drives all we do.
We inevitably show who we are. We can fake it for a bit, but it never fools for long. Soon others see through the fog and interpret it as pretentious, fake, untrustworthy.
While most of life lies somewhere between black and white, in a tangled infinity of shades, and hues, there are a few things that are all or non-negotiable. Knowing who you are and Whose you belong to is one of them. It is the foundation that everything else is built on. If it's unstable or weak, everything built on it is too.
So who do you believe you are?
Do you believe you are God's child?
been adopted into his family?
a full-blooded child with all the Kingdom's rights and privileges as a King's child?
Or do you think you have to be careful what you ask, fear being presumptuous, overstepping your acceptance?
Or do you see yourself as adopted but not embraced?
as the orphan-turned-farmhand because work needs doing?
as a sort of Cinderella: adopted but not empowered;
kept but not loved;
expected to work for others but live in the corner,
small and unnoticed.
Do you believe you are a new creature?
a prototype, completely new, something never before created or seen? (2 Cor 5:17)
Or do you think the same old person, with the same old struggles, lurks just below a layer of cheap whitewash?
Do you believe your identity is set deep in the heart of God,
or do you think your made-right nature is sin-soluble?
Can be washed away by your first mistake?
Do you crawl belly to the floor into the presence of God, head covered with your arms, full of fear?
Or do you run to him and ask him to expose all & fix all?
Do you believe his love for you drives how he cares for you?
Or do you believe he has had it, and his patience is worn thin?
God never leaves, turns away, or stops caring.
He never limits when, how, or why we can go to him- but bends down to listen to our every word.
He never says enough is enough but gives us a second chance a million million times.
Through the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, The Good Father stepped out from behind the curtain and into our life to forever change us.
Not just for now or until we screw up.
Forever.
*I'm addressing spiritual identity, which is the foundation of all other identities.
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