Yet to all who did receive Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God. John 1:12
Feeling Less Than
We have been talking a lot about how we as Christians are not supposed to judge and condemn others. But maybe you are the one who has been judged. Or maybe you have judged yourself. Maybe you, or someone else, has given you a label and that has become your identity.
We cling to labels for ourselves like life preservers. A diagnosis or a troubled area in our lives lead to labels like depressed, disabled, ADHD, OCD, and many more. While these are all very real struggles in our lives, we have to be careful to not them become our identity. Sometimes we like to let people know so they will give us a break, be patient with us, or give us extra time. If we are not careful, we can start to believe that the label completely defines us, spreading it into every area of our lives.
The world suggests that we look within to discover who we truly are. But if we only look at ourselves to try to discover who we are, we will be left feeling disappointed and empty. We can look inward and discover some truths about ourselves, but they don’t define us. Those truths were meant to be taken by our creator and used for His goodness and glory in our lives.
God desires that we be set free from feelings of condemnation we have encountered in the past, that we not pass condemnation to others, and that we become lovingly involved in helping others be set free. In the life of a believer, this sense of worthlessness is not from God. There is no condemnation because Christ took the sentence, punishment, and judgment for our sin. We have to fight hard to not let our humanness overcome our identity in Christ. Satan loves it when that happens. God’s standard is over and above all. Satan has no authority to speak identity into your life, but he will try. God has called you, adopted you and given you a new identity.
The trials and struggles we go through and the labels we pick up along the way certainly play a part in who we become. They change us and God uses those to His glory. But our true identity is in God and who He says we are. He alone is trustworthy and unchanging, and He is the only one worthy to determine who we are. He created us and gave us specific characteristics that He will use in our story. Labels come from our human traits, not our Heavenly Father. Our Heavenly Father gives us our identity and it is as His son or daughter. He calls us chosen, royal, forgiven, free, and victorious. We are who He says we are forever. That identity cancels out all the negative labels we give ourselves – sinner, unworthy, no good, lazy, and so many more. No matter what you did in the past, you are not that person anymore. Let who you are in Christ wash all the other labels away.
…and He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed. 1 Peter 2:24
