Your Identity In Christنموونە

Are You Defined By What You Want?

To live for what we long for is like being a small boat on the raging sea - we are always being tossed about.

What do you long for? To be popular? To get your driver's license? A new gaming system? What we long for can give us a false hope that tomorrow will be better than today.

To live for what we long for is like being a small boat on the raging sea - we are always being tossed about. If our plans go well, we feel great and hopeful, as if nothing could ever go wrong. When things go bad in our plan, we feel terrible and hopeless, as if nothing is ever going to work out.

Who you are is not based on what you long for. Your identity is based on what Jesus Christ has done for you. Look to him and to what he has already done for you, and find your satisfaction in him.

Read James 4:13-17

What are your plans for the future? What does James say about making plans and talking about them? (See James 4:14.)

Discuss with a group or your family if there are situations and plans that they are expecting to work out in a certain way. Ask them what they would think and how they would feel if things didn't work out the way they expected.

Prayer

Pray that God will direct your longings in line with his longings for your life.