Who On Earth Are You?

Nov 7, 2015 1753

There have been times I’m my life when I have questioned my own identity. Why do I believe as I do? Why do I act as I do?

Am I just the product of my life-experiences? Am I really who I think I am? Am I who I say I am? Or am I just someone’s puppet?

Perhaps if you have never asked yourself these questions, you are living the unexamined life, and you are in the hands of others.

So here are some questions for you about the great issues of life…

Are you going to let someone else tell you who you are, how to think, how to act, and how to fit into his or her group?

Are you going to let them control your life? Are you going to let them define your identity?

And even if we think that we are going to break free and be our own person, most of the time we are just deceiving ourselves.

What will you do when who you thought you were is stripped away? What will you be left with?

We all derive our identity from the clues and promptings that we get from the world around us: from the earliest care that our parents give us, from our upbringing, from our experiences in church, from mass media, from social media, from our family life, our schooling, and our friends. All of these things are constantly bombarding us both directly and subliminally with messages telling us who we should be.

Then when we get married…. The way we relate to our spouse and our children is an acting out of who we think we are; the identity we have built for ourselves.

Our identity is too often made up of the hurts of our past, our guilt for our sins, the abuse we have suffered at the hands of others, and how we have in turn hurt them. We either build up massive fortresses of pride to keep others out, or become co-dependent on others in unhealthy ways. And the worst of it is that these identities we build up for ourselves tend to be very helpful in keeping the healing grace of Jesus out of our lives as well.

No wonder there are so many troubled and failed relationships!

But there is a way to make sure that you stand strong through life, firm in your own identity, acting rightly and consistently. And there is nothing that brings more joy and peace in life than knowing who on earth you are!

The disciples of Jesus were just like us. They spent most of their time thinking about themselves. It was on just such an occasion that Jesus asked them the question,

“Who do people say that I am?” (Matt 16:15, NIV).

Christ turned their focus away from themselves to the all-important question of who he was.

Peter had the right answer:

…”You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (v.16, NKJV).

In Peter’s answer was the greatest truth ever revealed to humanity – that Jesus was the Promised Messiah, the Saviour of the World. Jesus was the one of whom the prophet had announced centuries before:

Therefore thus says the Lord God,

“Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a tested stone,

A costly cornerstone for the foundation, firmly placed.

He who believes in it will not be disturbed.” – Isaiah 28:6, NASB

Peter knew it theoretically, but the coming days would prove that he had yet to learn what that meant as the vital truth on which he must base all of his existence.

How about you? Have you learned this yet? Is it only theoretical for you?

Have you based your life on Jesus Christ alone as your foundation – as the basis of all your identity? Or are you still relying on others to tell you who you are?

Because when you believe in Jesus, when you truly believe that as his child, 100% of who you are comes from him and from nowhere else, only then you will be able to block out all of the other voices that scream out the lies to you.

Then, in full surrender to his total Lordship over your life, you will know who on earth you are. Then you will be able to stand and rejoice through anything.

Because nobody will ever be able to take your identity away.

– Eliezer Gonzalez

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