Identification 2
Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple, And saith unto him, “If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, ‘He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone.’” Jesus said unto him, “It is written again, ‘Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.’” Matthew 4:5-7, KJV
Identity
noun
1. the fact of being who or what a person or thing is. “he knows the identity of the bomber”
the characteristics determining who or what a person or thing is. synonyms: individuality, selfhood, ego, character, personality, originality, distinctiveness, distinction, singularity, peculiarity, uniqueness, differentness
I started this devotional with the definition of “identity” because I believe it is so important that we understand what this word means. So many people get caught up in chasing after titles, positions and things to gain the respect of others because they don’t know who they are. Our identification comes from God. “Then God said, ‘Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over [a]all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.’ So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them” (Genesis 1:26-27). We are a spirit, we have a soul and we live in a body. We were born into sin and because of that, a haze forms over our identity, giving us the illusion that we don’t know who we are.
You can see it all over the world - the insecurity about who we are has caused sin to flourish and trouble to reign for all mankind. Fear comes from not knowing our identity and the result of fear is sin. This breeds racism, hatred, jealousy, envy, selfishness… the list goes on. We must study the word of God so we are not deceived into believing that our identity comes from anything else but God. Our position at work, church or any other organization is what we do; it is not who we are. “So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, ‘Come back to God!’ For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ” (2 Corinthians 5:20-21, NLT).
We are God’s ambassadors put here to do His good works. When Satan goes to Jesus the second time, he is still after His identity. If Jesus does not know that He is the son of God sent to save the world, we are lost in sin and Satan wins. As you saw in the scripture, Jesus does not even address His identity with Satan. Satan comes at Jesus by trying to twist the word of God, but Jesus responds with the word in truth.
Father,
Thank you for revealing to us how important it is to know our identity. It does not matter the channel we came through or the last name we have - our identity comes from you. We ask that as you continue to reveal to us the path that we should walk, remind us how to fire back with the word of God. Let us do this in complete confidence and authority of what you have proclaimed. Our desire is to be just like our brother Jesus and never be fooled to believe we are anything other than the sons and daughters of the most high God. Amen!
Affirmations: Matthew 10:20; Luke 24:32; Ephesians 6:19, Isaiah 55:11
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