Identity

Sunday, June 30, 2013

Understanding our identity is so important. Our identity informs our moral, ethical, and legal compass. It shows where we place our value and principles.

Let’s see what labels we put on ourselves or allow others to put on us.

Can you relate to any of these?

 

 

• I am insecure.

 • I am a screamer.

 • I internalize everything.

 • I am a worrier.

 • I am a bickerer.

 • I am always late.

 • I always mess things up.

 • I am messy.

 • Things will never get better.

 • I’ll never lose weight.

 • I’m a loser.

 

Many labels come from our personality traits.

 

Do your personality weaknesses become your labels?

 

Sanguine

• Compulsive talker 
• Exaggerator
• Egotistical 
• Loud
• Forgetful
• Undisciplined
• Fickle

 Choleric

• Bossy
• Quick-tempered
• Impatient
• Inflexible
• Unsympathetic
• Manipulative
• Demanding
• Argumentative

 Melancho

• Moody
• Insecure 
• Martyr  
• Critical 
• Unforgiving 
• Hard to please 
• Withdrawn 
• Remembers the negatives

 Phlegmatic

 

• Unenthusiastic
• Indecisive 
• Self-righteous
• Un-motivated 
• Indifferent
• Sarcastic 
• Lazy 
• Selfish

 Labels that come from our life situations can either make us victims or victorious. Do you have any of these labels?

 

• Widow
• Divorcee 
• Single mom 
• Adopted 
• Neglected as a child 
• Sick 
• Abusive background 
• Unemployed 
• Fired 
• Childless 

We often make excuses for our labels. Have you ever made these statements?

 

• This is just part of my personality.
• This is the way I was made.
• I can’t change the past. 
• What will be will be. 
• God made me this way.
• This behavior has been in my family for generations. 
• I just have that “gene.” 
• I can’t change now.

Labels are very much a part of your personal identity. Your personal identity is the way that you see yourself. It is very important to you because it will affect the way you feel about yourself and how you behave in challenging situations. Your personal identity includes:

 

• Who are you?

 • What makes you unique?

 • What is your God-given purpose?

 • What do you value?

 • What drives your moral compass?

 • What is your physical identity (what you think you look like to others

 • What is your internal identity (who you think you are in terms of your personality and character, values, etc.)

 • How do you see yourself in relation to others?

• How do you identify yourself?

 • What are the labels you use to describe yourself?

 • What are you personal goals?

 

 Your own identity is much the way others see you.

 

• Do others see you imprisoned by your labels?

 • Do they see you as God sees you or as you see yourself?

 • Do others see labels that you do not even recognize?

 • Are you blind to the labels others put on you?

 

Before you can make positive changes in your life, you need to devote time understanding your personal identity. Then you will better able to move closer to where you want to be.

 

Are you stuck – imprisoned – by your label? If you are stuck in your labels, you are limiting what God can do in and through you.

 

To become a victor instead of victim of your labels, find your identity in Christ. Consider yourself first a Child of the King. If you don’t like yourself, if you live in negative labels, how can you ever reach your God-given potential in life?

 

 2 essential questions guide our identity

 • Who do you say you are?

 

• Who does God say you are?

  

“So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he crated them.” Genesis 1:27

 

"I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made.” Psalm 139:14

 

 “For we are God’s workmanship created in Christ Jesus to do good works which God prepared in advance for use to do.” Ephesians 2:1

 

 Decide which labels are appropriate for you and which ones need to go. Let’s focus on ourselves as God’s workmanship and the good works we can do for him.

 

 

One Degree Off Course

Tuesday, March 27, 2012

For every degree a plane flies off course, it will miss the target by 92 feet. That’s about one mile for every mile flown. After traveling 53 miles, the plane will be a mile off course. Over time, the gap will increase. On a flight from New York City to Los Angeles, the plane would be over 40 miles off course.

Fortunately airplanes have computer systems on board that help the pilot to make corrections in their course. A good pilot learns to steer the plane back in the right direction when he has strayed from the route.

The pilot knows the starting point, the goal, and the flight plan. By reading his instrument panel, he knows when he gets off-course and he knows what to do to get back on the path. His chief goal is to get to his destination safely.

We each have a God-given purpose and a primary aim to please Him.

Therefore we make it our aim…to be well pleasing to Him. 2 Corinthians 5:9

God has created us with a personality, spiritual gifts, passions, and talents to be used to glorify him and serve others. Like pilots, we also often veer off course. We don’t always make the decisions that will keep us on the path God has designed for us. Imagine how far off we might be from our God-given purpose if we consistently veer off course one degree at a time!

Whatever our starting point in our journey, our goal is to live a Christ-filled life and to follow the plan in his word, the Bible. God seeks us out when we stray. When we get off-course, he gently steers us back.

Any action that even in the slightest degree diverts us from our primary goal of being “approved to God” (2 Timothy 2:15) needs a course correction.

Let’s learn to follow his flight plan.