You are strong. You are a saint. You are righteous, justified. You are Holy. You are accepted. You are seated in with Christ in Heavenly places. You are forgiven – completely & freely. You are chosen. You are a royal priest. You are His masterpiece, His workmanship, His poem. You are powerful. You are valuable, worth dying for.

This is how God sees you. But how do you see you? If you allow your work or your ministry to define, you will become a workaholic because you think you are what you do. If you allow others to define you, you will be confined to their expectation and will need approval from man more than God. If you allow your past hurts and failures to define you will be the constant victim, always looking at life through a rear view mirror.

So why not allow the one who created you to define you? Why not allow the one who purchased you with His life, who saw your value while you were lost in sin define you. When you believe who God says you are, you will be set free from a life of shoulda, woulda, coulda. You will be free to be who God called you to be! You will be free from guilt, free from shame, free from all the thoughts that confine you. When you believe who God says you are, you will be free indeed!

Identity matters.

But you are not like that, for you are a chosen people. You are royal priests, a holy nation, God’s very own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light. “Once you had no identity as a people; now you are God’s people. Once you received no mercy; now you have received God’s mercy.” (1 Peter 2:9-10 NLT)