Devotions this week based on the Message: “BELIEVE: Week 5: My Identity as a Child of God!”
(NOTE: This sermon series and devotional series is based on a book by Randy Frazee entitled, “BELIEVE.”
You may choose to download or purchase the book as a supplement to your worship and devotional emails.)
Can I brag for a moment?
I am a proud dad of my two daughters. Both are amazing, beautiful young women.
They both are gifted in many ways. Last night our youngest was inducted into the National Junior Honor Society and the oldest a couple weeks ago was accepted into Texas A&M University. Both excel at their school work and, as parents, we’ve been blessed that they have a personal desire and drive to do their best and be their best.
As proud as I am of them, I have a bigger prayer than continued success in their academics and life ahead (although I desire that for them as well). My prayer is this: that they would always find their identity in Christ, not their performance.
It is tempting, because I know I can struggle with finding meaning, worth and value in my performance and I unfortunately passed on my sinful nature to them as well.
When one has performance identity, it is hard to fail or admit failure. Even though in a practical way failure is a step forward to success, it can be crushing if I allow a failure in performance to define who I am.
It comes out this way, “I’m no good.” “I will never be as good as…” “I should just quit because I can’t do it.”
These phrases are indicative that HOW well I do at what I am doing is defining or at least beginning to define WHO I am. As yesterday’s devotion stated, basing our identity on our performance, will always leave us lacking.
So what happens when we allow Christ to define our identity? Here’s what we discover:
- I am not just good…in Christ, I am perfect!
Hebrews 10:14 For by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy. No one has ever been perfect at life except Jesus Christ. The amazing thing is, he has given to us his perfect record. We stand before God, not as failures because of sin, but perfect because of forgiveness.
“I failed” and “I am a failure” are two very different phrases. One is a reflection on an activity, the other a reflection of my identity. When I look to Christ, I realize I may fail, but I never have to buy the lie of Satan that I am a failure…because Jesus gave me perfection!
- I can perform without the pressure of being perfect.
1 Corinthians 10:31 So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.
When I don’t have to prove my worth or secure my value because of my performance, it frees me up simply to perform at my best to the glory of God. The pressure of perfection is off…and is often the case when the pressure is off, I perform even better.
As I said, I am proud of my girls, but my prayers is that they, my wife and I would always find our identity in the perfect performance of Christ and then continue to spend our lives glorifying our Savior who redeemed us with his perfect life!
Apply: What changes today if you start knowing you are already perfect in Christ and can spend your day simply doing your best to the glory of God?
Prayer: Lord, thank you for giving us perfection in Jesus. Shift our drive in life to always perform at our best knowing you are the giver of all our abilities. AMEN.