Do You Believe What God Says About You?

Posted on Jan 26, 2022 Topic : Inspirational/Devotional, Men's Christian Living, Women's Christian Living
Posted by : Stephen Viars

What do you see when you look in the mirror in the morning? Pushing beyond the wild hair and faint scar from a childhood mishap, what truly comes into focus?

Some see shame. Each morning is the opportunity to replay life’s failures and disappointments. Today’s rendition will be just like yesterday’s and the days before that. I blew it. I messed up. I loathe my existence.

Others see pride. I am the most important person in the house, at the office, in the community. The people around better prepare to serve me and my wishes today or they will face my wrath, or my pouting, or my tirade.

The list of answers is practically endless. Each unique and selected grid frames the way we think about the individuals and events around us. Our chosen identity impacts our subsequent words, our desires, and our choices.

Complicating this issue is how others have fueled and informed your answer in the past and will continue to do so throughout this day and beyond. The advertiser says you’re special. The boss suggests you’re worthless. Your cat ignores you and the guy you just passed on the highway flipped you the one-fingered sign of universal affection.

Thankfully, the gospel speaks into this question in ways that are powerful, life-giving, and filled with hope. One such example is the marvelous little phrase “in Christ.” If you have had a definite time where you admitted your need and placed your faith in His finished work on the cross, your identity is found fully and freely in Him. Consider how many times our identity in Christ is emphasized in just one passage of Scripture:

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love, He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. In Him, we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace which He lavished on us. In all wisdom and insight, He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His kind intention which He purposed in Him with a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of the times, that is, the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things on the earth. In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will, to the end that we who were the first to hope in Christ would be to the praise of His glory. In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation—having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory (Ephesians 1:3-14).

So what should you see when you look in the mirror in the morning? A person whose identity is grounded in the finished work of Christ and His miraculous resurrection.

To the person in shame, the gospel screams that Christ’s blood has washed such things away. To the proud, our indwelling Savior calls us to humble ourselves as we consider all that was necessary you secure our salvation. This means that the advertiser, your cat, and surely your fellow motorist have it all wrong – you are in Christ today and every day.

Do you believe what God says about you?