In the mid 1900’s Fritz Kreisler, an Austrian born violinist was regarded as on o f the world’s greatest musicians. One day he had a ticket to board a ship in Hamburg, Germany. He was going to sail to London for a concert. Kreisler had an hour before his boat sailed. He wandered into a music shop, where the proprietor asked if he could look at the violin Kreisler was carrying. He then vanished and returned with two policemen, one of whom told the violinist, "You are under arrest."
"What for?" asked Kreisler.
"You have Fritz Kreisler's violin."
"I am Fritz Kreisler."
"You can't pull that on us. Come along to the station." As Kreisler's boat was sailing soon, there was no time for prolonged explanations. Kreisler asked for his violin and played a piece of music he was well known for. "Now are you satisfied?" he asked. They were!
If you have given your heart and life to Jesus Christ, you have a new identity. That identity has been given to you by God. You are now a child of God. You belong to Him. No one can take away or steal your identity.
The Gospels are filled with stories of men and women who came to Jesus because they had lost their identity or didn’t like their present identity and were seeking a new, more meaningful one.
One of our fundamental problems is we don’t understand who we are – children of God made in his image. Instead we define ourselves by any number of things other than Jesus.
Why we struggle:
•Identity gives us a sense of security.
•We crave the approval and affirmation of other people.
•We are afraid of rejection so we attempt to meet social expectations
•It requires us to let go of what has always defined us and to see ourselves the way God sees us.
You might not realize this, but there is a spiritual war going on over your identity. Satan cannot create anything. Only God can create. Satan can only pervert, distort, or destroy. So what he likes to do is take what God has created for good and pervert it, distort it, or destroy it.
Satan can’t hurt God. But what he likes to do is attempt to hurt God by hurting God’s kids. If you want to see my worst side, you go after my wife and kids. Right? This is what Satan does. Satan know that if he can keep you from being who God has made you to be, if he can steal or destroy your God given identity, he can attack God.
So today, I want to encourage you by reminding you who you are in Christ. You have God-given identity.
1 Peter 2:9 - “for you are a chosen people. You are royal priests, a holy nation, God’s very own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light.
Listen to what God’s Word says about your new identity in Christ. You have been chosen by God. You are his very own possession.
Today’s Challenge: We abandon any image of ourselves that is not from God. We stop accepting what others have said about us, how others label us, and how others define us.
You are defined by God and God alone. 2 Corinthians 1:22 – “He has identified us as his own by placing the Holy Spirit in our lives.”
