Who Am I? Identity Crisis 101

~By: Lindsey Whitmore~

Who am I? How you answer that question reveals in whom or what you place your identity. Someone once asked, “Is who I am determined by what I do, or is what I do determined by who I am?” This is not a riddle, instead it is a reality that many of us need to come to understand. You may have heard the powerful lyrics to Hillsong Worship’s Who You Say I Am. If not, here is a sample of the words lifted in that song: “Who the Son sets free, Oh is free indeed, I'm a child of God, Yes I am…I am who You say I am.”

Genesis 1:1-2 tells us, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was unformed and void…” Do you know what else He created that was unformed? US! Psalm 139:13-16 reads, “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.” God, the Creator of ALL things, has the first and only say as to who we are.

The problem lies with us. We often have chosen to find our identity in other ways because we may think the wonderful things God says about who we are could not possibly be true. Or maybe we have sought our identity in other ways because we genuinely do not know what God says about who we are. Wherever you are coming from, if you are still reading, you no longer have an excuse. Your identity is NOT in your career, your relationship status, how many followers you have, whoever you are hanging out with at the moment, your husband or wife, your cultural background, where or how you grew up, your past or present mistakes, your sexuality, your bank account, your children, or any other ‘fill in the blank.’ Your identity is in Christ Jesus, the author and perfecter of The Story that started in Genesis and continues today through you and me.

Christ Jesus is the one John was speaking about in John 1:9-13 when he wrote, “The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.” In 2 Corinthians 5:17-18 Paul wrote, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ...”

The next time someone asks you who you are, I pray that you stop and think about your response. The next time you are with a group of people and they ask you to state your name and something about yourself, I pray that you are able to practice first saying I am a child of God (who works; who is married; who is a mom; who…you get the point.) The first part of living out our rebirth, back to God’s original intent for us, is to acknowledge His Son Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior over our lives. Then, it is to take action steps to allow Him to take the wheel back by learning His ways of thinking about the world, others, and, most importantly, ourselves. We are who He says we are! Neil Anderson wrote, “We have to believe that our new identity is in the life of Christ and commit ourselves to grow accordingly. The truth (Christ and His Word) should set us free and enable us to conform to the image of God.”

My prayer is that you choose today to be set free by believing God at His Word: that your identity comes from life in Christ Jesus. I pray that you will commit yourself to grow accordingly, so that you might walk in all confidence the journey marked out for you long ago.

For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago. Ephesians 2:10