Saturday 20 August 2011

Are You Having an Identity Crisis?

Hands up all those who have ever wished they were someone else?
Perhaps someONE else someWHERE else, doing someTHING else!

We've all done that at one time or another, especially when we've just done something embarrassing and wanted the ground to open up and swallow us whole!

How we see ourself plays an enormous role in our day to day life. It affects our decisions, our relationships...it even affects the way we treat ourselves.

Where does our identity come from?
Most of our self-perception is established in early childhood, coming from our family of origin.
It was here that we experienced love or indifference; acceptance or rejection; security or dysfunction.

It's not only home that gave us messages about ourselves.
Society - and the media that manipulates it - bombards us all with the statement, "If you were a successful human being then your life would look like this".
Our life doesn't match the images on the screen or in the magazines (even the models themselves don't look like that), so we spend the rest of our lives desperately trying to fill the aching void within us with stuff that never truly satisfies...an eternal quest for the one thing that will bring us peace, joy and fulfillment.

I want to tell you that Jesus Christ is the only way to get that peace, joy and fulfillment you are desperate for.
He died on the cross to take away the guilt and shame you feel about yourself, and to pay the price for your sin. He died to give you freedom!
And just as He was raised to life again, so we too can have new life in Him.

When we make Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour, repenting of our sins and asking His forgiveness, something incredible happens.
Everything that is true about HIM, then becomes true of YOU.
When we become God's child we are adopted into His eternal family (Ephesians 1:5), valued as His precious creation (Ephesians 2:20), and nothing can separate us from His love (Romans 8:35).

It's been said that "your who determines your do", and that applies whether you are saved or not.
Seeing yourself  in the light of God's Word and promises is key to living successfully.

Romans 12:2a says,
"Don't copy the behaviour and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think..."
Don't let another day go by without taking hold of the life-changing truths found in God's Word.
Hallelujah! Rejoice child of God!

A bientot mes amis,
XRebecca

For a list of identity statements you can print off, go to http://www.ficm.org/newsite/index.php?command=textwhoamiinchrist