A Nugget from New Life Network
Scripture for the Day (February 21, 2018)
I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well. (Psalm 139:14)
One of the things many of us struggle with in life is our own personal identity. Who are we? What are we here for? Why was I born? We compare ourselves one to another and are constantly trying to be accepted by our peers which many times means we try to look and act like someone else. Where did all that come from in the first place? Let’s take a look at the origin of this dissatisfaction with ourselves.
In the Garden of Eden the serpent (Satan) told Eve that if she would just eat of the tree which is in the midst garden she would not die as God had said. Consider this. Eve was created perfect! She was God’s fashion queen. The Lord God fashioned into a woman the rib which He had taken from the man, and brought her to the man (Genesis 2:22, NASB). Eve did not even have another woman to compare herself to. But the serpent convinced her that the fruit from this tree would make her better. It would open her eyes and make her like God. He convinced her that the fruit of this tree was good for food, was pleasant to the eyes, and would make her wise. This is where all the unhappiness and dissatisfaction with who we are created to be comes from. This is where the struggle began. It began when Adam and Eve acted on a bunch of lies.
Here we are thousands of years later and still struggling with this identity crisis. Listen to several scriptures that deal with this specific struggle:
For we dare not make ourselves of the number, or compare ourselves with some that commend themselves: but they measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise. (2 Corinthians 10:12)
But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me. (1 Corinthians 15:10)
Did you hear what the Apostle Paul said? I am what I am by the grace of God. You don’t think Paul struggled with people trying to make him something he wasn’t? Listen to what the Corinthians thought about Paul.
For his letters, say they, are weighty and powerful; but his bodily presence is weak, and his speech contemptible (2 Corinthians 10:10).
People were constantly trying to compare Paul with more eloquent speakers and stronger men. We face the same type of comparisons today. But thank God that we can say as Paul said, “I am what I am by the grace of God”. When you get to that point in your life, you are FREE, but the only way you get there is to know who you are in Christ Jesus.
For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. (Ephesians 2:10)
But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light; (1 Peter 2:9)
For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh. (Philippians 3:3)
