Tuesday, August 24, 2021
Now when he had spent everything, a severe famine occurred in that country, and he began to be impoverished. So, he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. And he would have gladly filled his stomach with the pods that the swine were eating, and no one was giving anything to him. Luke 15:14-16
A Royal Identity
In our lifetime, we will identify ourselves with many different roles, and our identities change according to what season we are in. We go from being a teenager to a young adult to a married man or woman. We are children, spouses, grandparents, friends, confidants, employees, and so much more. We can get our identities tangled up in what we do or what we like, instead of who we really are. It is easy to hide behind a false identity when we don’t want to deal with a certain area of our lives. Like the prodigal son in the sermon Sunday, sometimes we just get a wild idea about who we want to be or what we want to do without ever considering our relationship to God. We might do this on purpose – if we just want to do things our own way and not hear what He has to say. The prodigal son thought he knew what he wanted in life, and it didn’t line up with what his father wanted or knew what was best for him. After wandering from one place to another looking for the fulfillment he thought he would find, he literally ended up in the pigpen.
I don’t know about you, but I have found myself in some “pigpens” in this life. Oh, they didn’t look like a pigpen on the outside. (I don’t think any of us ever intentionally seek out a pigpen.) They looked more like a palace. Satan is careful to make sure the pigpens don’t look like what they really are. They look like a store, a drink, drugs, a person, a job, or whatever it is that we think will make us satisfied or important, or popular, or fill the void in our hearts. What we are seeking we already have. What we want these pigpens to give us, He already has. In our identity as His son or daughter lies everything we could ever need or want. Every need we could have fulfilled, every empty inch satisfied.
When we leave God’s authority – or care, we seek an identity in all the wrong things just like the prodigal son. He thought he wanted this life of extravagance and that would make him happy. As with anything in this world, the happiness or fulfillment we think we have found on this earth will fade quickly, leaving us to feel even more unsatisfied – or up to our knees in the muck of the pigpen. We too easily “wander” into all kinds of pigpens looking for something - something to make us happy, make us fulfilled, make us satisfied, or make us feel significant.
This can happen before we realize it. We jump from one pigpen to another, usually hopping a lot of fences before we realize we are not living the life we want to live. Most importantly, we are not the living life God wants us to live. Like the father in the story, our Heavenly Father loves us and wants the very best for us and that very best is only HIS very best. When we wander away, He is always waiting to welcome us home with open arms.
Remember – we have an eternal identity that never changes, no matter what season we are in or what our circumstances are. The one identity that we have from the moment we are His can only be found in Him. All of our other identities should be built on this foundation.
But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation. 1 Peter 2:9-12
