Recognizing Your Identity in Christ

If God identified us before we were born as His masterpiece in the image of Christ Jesus for good works, how do we fully embody this image and discover these good works?

How do we get to know anyone? We have to spend time with them.

To recognize our identity in Christ, we have to take an active role. We are a participant and a partner in shaping our identity. To create this partnership, this friendship, we have to spend time with God so that we can trust Him. God wants our lives to reflect Him and His plan for us. He wants a relationship with us marked by us spending so much time with Him, by abiding with Him, that we can recognize His voice when He’s speaking to us. “I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same beareth much fruit: for apart from me ye can do nothing.” ‭‭John‬ ‭15:5‬ ‭ASV‬‬ God wants to abide with Him, which means to spend time with Him.

When we spend this much time with someone, what begins to happen? We begin to know and understand the way they think. When getting this connection with God, we begin to recognize when the ways that we think, feel and behave (our identity) align with Him and when they don’t. There will be times when God will cut away certain elements that no longer serve us so that God will continue to use us to do good works for Him.

We’ve all had those times where we had to get rid of those things that no longer serve us because they were weighing us down. Whether it was extra clutter in our homes, activities that just took up time and were no longer beneficial, or even those extra pounds we may have gained over the years. For us to continue to flourish and grow, we had to shed or get rid of those things that were weighing us down. The same is true with how God shapes and prunes our lives to continue to look more and more like Him. Spending time with God reveals to us those things that are just in the way and cluttering up the good works He has for us to do. The clutter can look like an old way of thinking, speaking harshly to the people around us and not caring for our bodies.

As we grow and mature in Christ, we will progressively change; it will not happen overnight. It comes from spending time with God and discovering how He sees us and wants us to see ourselves. Becoming more like Christ and having our identity align with Him will come by spending time with Him and renewing our minds daily on How He sees us.

Application / Reflection:

1. How do you spend time with God?
2. What can you do to cultivate your relationship with God?