The True You

"Who Am I?" Devotion Series

Here we go again with a new start—not to the year but to American Idol. For the last few seasons the audition phase has become a must-see in my house. While we marvel at notes sung well and even more so when they’re not, it’s become especially interesting to watch the number of contestants who declare that life will end if they don’t make the cut. “This is what I’ve lived for,” they say through tears. “This is all I have.”

They’ve seen themselves on stage. They’ve wrapped themselves in the identity. But what happens when that identity is suddenly pulled out from under them, when Simon says they don’t have what it takes to be on the show? Or worse, that they don’t have what it takes to sing, period? What will they do then? Who will they be?

The scenario applies to us all. Not in the “Idol” sense, of course, but we all wrap ourselves in an identity, often several. We are male or female, black or white. We are Italian, Jamaican, Irish, Mexican, Middle Eastern, and Korean. We are teachers, business people, scientists, lawyers, singers, musicians, athletes, and artists. We are husbands and wives, dads and moms. The list is endless, yet they all have the same bottom line—they are earthly. Limited. Temporal. One day they will be pulled out from under us. Who will we be then?

I know someone is saying, “Please, Kim…we’ll be dead. We won’t be anything then.”

So glad you’re doing the study! Do you know that you will exist for eternity? Do you know that who you are on that side of eternity has everything to do with who you are on this side of eternity?

So here’s the question: Do you know who you are? The true you? Do you define yourself by what’s earthly, limited and temporal? Or by what’s true and eternal?

That’s our goal in this devotion series, to examine who we are…from God’s perspective. He’s the one who created us, and He never desired that we live, move, and have our being in identities that are earthly and limited. He desires that we live, move, and have our being in Him. That’s been His plan from the beginning of time.

When God created Adam and Eve, He fashioned them in His image and placed them in an ideal setting (Genesis 1 and 2). They walked with God and in accordance with His will. They needed nothing else to complete them, certainly not another identity. They sat already at the pinnacle of human existence, the best God could bestow—they were His children, endowed with His likeness. There was nothing that could compete with that.

Which was why the serpent had to lie.

He told them there was another identity, a higher one to which they could aspire. “You will be like God, knowing good and evil,” the serpent said (Genesis 3:5).

When Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit, they didn’t attain that higher identity the serpent promised. Instead, they fell to a lower one—sinner—the identity into which all of mankind after them has been born (Romans 5:12).

And what is he doing now, that “serpent of old who is called the devil and Satan” (Revelation 12:9)? Anything he can do to keep us in that lower identity. Oh, he doesn’t want us to know we’re “sinners.” He lets us dress it up however we will, search for meaning and purpose in whatever we will, hoping we stay that way until we step into eternity…an utterly hopeless eternity. He hopes we never discover who we are—sinners in need of a Savior. He knows that if we knew the truth, we could come up to a higher identity, one that’s full of blessing, strength, and power.

This devotion series begins, then, with an important first step. If you have never acknowledged who you are before God—a sinner—that’s where you start. Maybe you’ve never thought of yourself as a sinner. You try to do your best in life. You’ve never hurt anyone. But my friend, “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). And “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23).

“But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). Yes, He took our place. And because He lives, we can live—both now and in a glorious eternity with Him. I will lead you in the prayer below, but as always, if you have any questions, please contact me so I can walk with you.

Next week, we will begin to explore what it means to walk fully in a higher identity. Your assignment: read God’s call to Abram in Genesis 12:1-5. Have you surrendered all?

Dear God, I know that You are a holy God and I acknowledge before You that I am a sinner who deserves nothing but death. But I thank You that You sent Your Son to die in my place, so that I can truly live. And God, I want to live. I ask You to forgive my sins. I receive Jesus as Lord and Savior of my life, and I welcome your Holy Spirit to make me a new creation. Help me to walk in a higher identity, the only one that pleases you. In Jesus’ name, Amen.