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Your You Is New

I have borne several social “identities” throughout my life. Vocationally, I’ve been a trainee, VP, and retiree; a teacher, blogger, and author, as well. Relationally, I’ve been Duke’s boy, Peggy’s husband, Matthew’s dad, and the kiddos’ grandpa. There have been others — some reflecting decisions, affiliations, and character traits, perhaps. What about you, how have you been known, be it now or at different stages of life? How we are perceived along the way is highly individualized, our persona formed throughout our journey.

So I find it fascinating that the God of all creation would declare His own being in the context of us, His created ones. To Moses, He yoked Himself relationally to the Hebrew patriarchs who preceded him: “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.”1 In a brief preamble to the Ten Commandments, God defined Himself again, this time in terms of His past works on His people’s behalf: “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.”2 God embraces us, even to the point of identifying us in context of Himself, and declaring Himself in relation to us. Such intimacy! Such intentionality! What commitment.

What then must we conclude but that our true identity is anchored not in our moments, whether “good” or “bad,” but in God’s timeless love and grace, which surpasses all? David writes, “From everlasting to everlasting the Lord’s love is with those who fear him.”3 In turn we ask, who does the “I AM” — this timeless One — say that we are? Who are we, really? God tells us through His Word:

“If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”4
“Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine.”5
“The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ.”6
“You were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.”7
“For we are [God’s] workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”8

Who else has God made you to be? What else does His Word say about our new identity in Christ? If additional Scripture comes to mind, share it with the rest of us. And know this: We are defined by who we are in Christ and by the work God, through Christ, has done in us. May we live in the freedom of new identity.

Father, You have put us in Christ and made us Your own. Fill us that we would live fruitfully in this freedom, knowing we are loved, that we are Your own. In Christ we pray. Amen.

1 Exodus 3:6 ESV
2 Exodus 20:2 NIV
3 Psalm 90:2 NIV
4 2 Corinthians 5:17 ESV
5 Isaiah 43:1 ESV
6 Romans 8:16-17 ESV
7 Ephesians 5:8 NIV
8 Ephesians 2:10 ESV

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Remember This

“There is a time for everything and a season for every activity under the heavens,”1 so penned King Solomon. There is, for instance, is “a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;”2 so, too, there is for us “a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak.”3 Personally, I find myself in a season not mentioned amid Solomon’s couplets — a time of remembering. For less than two weeks from now, July 18 will mark 60 years since my father’s untimely passing, and the very next evening I will gather with my former classmates, whom I love, to celebrate our 50th high school reunion. We were a close class; we still are. So for me, there will be mourning amid dancing, and maybe weeping amid laughter, and behind it all will be remembrance.

Though remembrance can be painful, there is much to be gained through it. God repeatedly told His people, “Remember that you were slaves in Egypt.”4 Why on earth would God command His people to remember their years of oppression? He continued, “and the Lord your God redeemed you from there.”5 Against recollected evil, God’s goodness glows more brightly, and His faithfulness is found unmatched.

Does this sound too lofty — a nice concept, but detached from reality? Consider my personal story. After my father died, our young family struggled with grief. It was “one foot in front of the other” and “just go forward.” One day, someone shared a Bible verse, Psalm 68:5, with our mother; it read, “Father of the fatherless and protector of widows is God in his holy habitation.”6 Mom embraced this verse daily until the three of us, her children, left for college. All the while, God proved Himself to this fatherless one, for He gave me a teacher who drew potential from me. He sent a corporate manager to hire this college senior and thereafter to invest in my career. He placed in my life a pastor who exuded strength, confidence, and great joy — a true spiritual role model for this young believer. He sent another corporate executive who mentored me well. So as I look back now on my grief and despondency, I cannot do so without also remembering God’s faithful deliverance from its pain. For like a father to the fatherless, He was with me.

Can you relate? Can you recall how God has made difficult times in your life, though perhaps still painful, ultimately work for your good and to His praise? He is with you. Remember this.

“When you pass through the waters, I will be with you.” — Isaiah 43:2 NIV

“Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.”7 Thank you, Lord, for being with me, always. Amen.

1 Ecclesiastes 3:1 NIV
2 Ecclesiastes 3:4 NIV
3 Ecclesiastes 3:7 NIV
4, 5 Deuteronomy 24:18 NIV
6 Psalm 68:5 RSV
7 Psalm 139:7-8 NIV

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Power in Pipsqueaks

This is my Father’s world. O let me ne’er forget
That though the wrong seems oft so strong, God is the ruler yet. 1

If “Jesus Loves Me” topped the Sunday School hit parade back in the day, then “This Is My Father’s World” was a close second, at least at St. Thomas Lutheran Church in Cheboygan, Michigan. The first two stanzas proclaimed God’s majesty as reflected in creation, and the third assured us gathered wee ones that, in the presence and power of God, wrong is not as strong as it seems. Keyword: “seems.”

We tend to think of temptations as insurmountably strong, for like pipsqueaks before pugilists, our fleshy forays against it have failed too many times to count. “The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak,”2 said Jesus, and we have proved Him to be true. The wrong seems unconquerable because our feeble self-will is no match against it, no matter how steely our resolve. We are overwhelmed.

Then what better place for God to plant His power than into our weakness? As the Lord told Paul, “My power is made perfect in weakness.”3 And against what setting could the facets of God’s being — His strength, love, and wisdom — gleam more brilliantly if not our frailties? “God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.”4 In great power God has stepped into our weakness, and in our weakness His power is shown great.

So, we go forward —pipsqueaks filled with power — for “He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.”5 Confident in His great strength, we advance the Kingdom, for “God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.”6 Then as we live in Him and He in us, we find the wrong is not so strong, after all. God is the ruler yet.

“March on, my soul, with might!” — Judges 5:21 ESV

Father, indeed “the wrong seems oft so strong,” but we confess that Christ has overcome sin and its power over us. Lead us in this confidence today — that Christ in us is stronger than any wrong we encounter today. In Him we pray. Amen.

1 Babcock, Maltbie D. “This Is My Father’s World.” Public Domain.
2 Matthew 26:41 ESV
3 2 Corinthians 12:9 ESV
4 1 Corinthians 1:27-29 ESV
5 1 John 4:4 ESV
6 2 Timothy 1:6-7 ESV