Who Are You?

If you are on Facebook, then you know about the quizzes. Perhaps you have taken some of these quizzes; I have. They can be great fun, really, although I'm fairly certain that we shouldn't take them too seriously. Am I really pink? Or a rose? Or a dove? Or traditional? (Well, that one is pretty accurate!)  Should I move to Paris based on my quiz result? Which muppet am I? Or which Frozen character? Or Lord of the Rings character?  Or......

It is all great fun, but surely we are not basing our understanding of our identity on a quiz on Facebook!

Do we really know who we are? And are we protecting that identity? There's an entire industry these days devoted to identity protection. Unfortunately, I am more aware of that than I ever wanted to be.  These identity protection services can protect our credit cards and our social security numbers and our bank accounts. But do those numbers really identify us any more than the Facebook quizzes do?  Have we really come to the point that we are just a number?

The Scriptures tell a different story. We are individuals created in the image of God. He knows our name. He knows the number of hairs on our heads. He knows us intimately. And He loves us. Not because we deserve it, but in spite of the fact that we don't. He loves us so much "that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life."  (John 3:16 NASB)

That's what this Holy Week is all about. That God loves us. That Jesus loves us enough that He died for us. That we matter to Him. That's our identity!

"See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God, and so we are."  (1 John 3:1 ESV)

"You are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God."  (Ephesians 2:19 ESV)

How do we respond to such love?

"Let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this is love, not that we loved God but that He loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another." (1 John 4:7-8, 10-11 ESV)

Today, and throughout this Holy Week, I'm thanking the Lord for that great love and for the high price that was paid for my salvation. And I'm praying that I will respond to that great love by loving others more fully, by being a reflection of the Father's love. I'm rejoicing in my identity in Christ. And I pray that you might do the same.

"I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe."  (Ephesians 1:16-19 ESV)