Devotional: Identity

“But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.”

– 1 Peter 2:9 –

 

“Tell me about yourself.”

This question comes up all the time in casual introductions with new friends, formal interviews with bosses and babysitters, and random conversations in bars, airports, and bus rides.

How do you typically answer this question?

“Tell me about yourself?”

I tend to reiterate some form or another of this sentiment:

“My name is Justin, and I’m an Online Personal Trainer. I love helping people find a fun and functional approach to fitness. My wife Amanda is an illustrator, and our daughter Amelia is 6 months old.”

I suppose this technically answers the question, but it’s still kind of odd to me.

Here’s who I am apparently:

• My name
• My career
• My purpose behind my career
• My relationship status
• My life stepping stone status (i.e. married, kids)

All of these things are certainly important, but I would argue that our identity (the theme of this month’s devotional!) is much more – much bigger – than this list of semi-important markers of identity.

 

Regardless of what you believe, what you believe is an enormous aspect of your identity.

Your beliefs about yourself, about others, about God, about the world itself all tell a much deeper story than the list above. In fact, your beliefs are what fuel many of these identity markers, such as what you do for a living and why you do it.

I like to think about identity through the lens of a sports team.

Instead of “Tell me about yourself,” we can ask questions such as “Tell me about your jersey.”

A sports jersey tells you much about an athlete’s identity: notably, what team they play for.

(To continue the sports analogy, jerseys are now usually covered with patches from sponsors, so you could say that this represents the things/people/ideas that the athlete supports or is affiliated with. That’s a bit off-topic here, though haha.)

What team do you play for?

This question leads us back to 1 Peter 2:9, the Bible verse at the beginning of this message.

To catch us up to speed, the elevator pitch version of the Bible goes like this:

God created a beautiful, perfect world and created humans with whom to share it and enjoy it. We humans messed everything up, but God didn’t give up on us; Rather, He chose the people from the country of Israel to be His chosen people to set a good example and lead everyone back to Him. Israel made some progress, but a country made up of imperfect people could not accomplish a perfect mission – enter Jesus. Jesus is perfect, leads the way, and everything changes because of His life, death, and resurrection. 

(Phew, we made it haha!)

Peter, the author of 1 Peter, wrote this letter after Jesus returns to Heaven, and is speaking about this topic of identity.

Before Jesus, Israel was indeed the “chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.”

But, as mentioned, Jesus changed everything. Everything.

This includes everything (duh) and everyone.

Non-residents of Israel are now included in God’s salvation plan, and now everyone can accept the gift of being a “chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.”

This was true in the 1st century then, and it’s certainly still true in the 21st century now!

 

More thought-provoking questions coming at you…

Do you ever look in the mirror and see yourself as 

…a chose person?

…a royal priest?

…part of a holy nation?

…God’s special possession?

…a missionary to share the wonderful light?

More often (much more often) we live under other labels such as Husband, Wife, Mom, Dad, Manager, Employee, Coach, or Student.

I work with a lot of health professionals that would claim the career-oriented labels of Doctor, Nurse, Dentist, Massage Therapist, Yoga Instructor, etc.

Maybe you’ve even fallen prey to reducing your identity to your fitness, using labels like fit, fat, fast, lazy, obsessive, addict, or broken.

One of the sayings that you’ll hear around here often is:

You are more than your fitness.

Likewise, you are more than any other label you could apply to yourself. 

You are, instead, a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.

This true identity is a gift that God has been offering us since the beginning of time, and our only job is to accept it and apply it.

And that’s the conclusion of this devotional:

In order to find and grow into your identity, you must first realize it’s already been spoken over you and gifted to you.