In an age where we see an increasingly new focus on people discovering their identity, this will help you understand who you are.
Being part of the older generation is sometimes hard to admit, I never knew people that struggled with their identity as I see young people struggle with it today. They struggle a lot because they tie their uniqueness into their sexuality and not into their original intended purpose.
Let me say that your sexual preference is never your identity. Sexual preference is a choice you make. Your original intended purpose was decided for you. The world has duped a whole generation into thinking that what they sexually prefer is their identity. For other people, their success or their possessions becomes their identity. When the stock market crashed in 1929, many wealthy people committed suicide because they had their identity wrapped up in what they possessed.
What is your true identity? First, you have to ask, what is your purpose?
No identity can be identified unless you identify the purpose that the creator had for it initially. A tractor is identified as farm equipment. No one argues with that because the creator of the tractor had a goal in mind. Create a machine that can till the ground and speed up planting the new harvest. The original purpose it was created for does not alter because the farmer chooses to use the tractor to pull his truck out of a mudhole.
What is God’s purpose for you?
1. God created you to be loved.
You are the object of God’s affection. When sin robbed us of fellowship with the Father, He paid the ultimate price to redeem us. What motivated God to go to that extreme to make sure He maintains fellowship and friendship with us? He loves us. John 3:16 – For God so loved the world that gave. Love can’t help it. Of all the things that God can create to love, He chose you.
2. God created you to be in a relationship with Him.
John 17:3 – This is eternal life, that they might know the Father and the one whom He has sent. God saved us to restore our relationship with Him. He longs to communicate with you and to reveal His heart and plan for your life. God is a Father, and He wants many sons and daughters. Those that accept Him He gives the power and authority to become His sons and daughters – John 1:12.
3. God created you to be an overcomer.
God tagged Adam with the responsibility to rule and reign and to subdue the earth. We don’t like trials and temptations. They are not sent to make us a failure but to understand the joy of overcoming whatever the enemy throws at us. Without a test, there is no testimony. I love what James writes in James 1:2 – Count it all joy when you fall into various trials and temptations because the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.
4. God created you to know His will.
The biggest struggle with understanding God’s will is that we still think the wrong way. Rom 12:2 – Do not be conformed to this world but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God is. God wants us to understand what He wants for us. Solomon states it in this way: Trust in the Lord with all of your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct your path – Prov 3:5-6.
5. God created you to represent Him on earth.
When God created Adan and Eve in His image, they were to be a representation of God on earth. God said: Let us make man in our image. If you saw Adam, you would understand who God is. Jesus is the express image of the Father – Heb 1:3. Jesus was the express character of God. If you saw Jesus, you would know and see the nature of God on display. Rom 8:29 says that He predestined us to be conformed to the image of Christ. If he expressed God’s character on earth, and I have to be like Him, I must express God’s nature.
Now that we know some of our purposes, we can begin to discover who we are. We will start next week.
