Your Identity Has Been Stolen...And You Don't Even Know It.

Identity. 

What does this word mean?

Dictionary.com defines identity as, "the condition of being oneself or itself, and not another." 

Our identity is the very core of who we are. It is the makeup of our soul. In order to know our true identity, we must first know where our identity comes from. 

God. He is our Creator. He is the One who knows everything about us because he is the one who breathed us into existence. God is the one who gives us our identity. Let's take a look at a few verses that provide the evidence of our identity in Christ: 

So God created human beings in his own image. In the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. 

-Genesis 1:27 NLT

God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure. 

-Ephesians 1:5 NLT

But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God.

-John 1:12 NLT

We are all sons and daughters of the Most High God. This means that our identity is found in him. Just as we receive DNA from our mother and father, we also have the DNA of Christ in us. 

Many times, we fall victim to identity theft at the hands of the enemy. Through situations in life, relationships, jobs, and social status, Satan finds a way to distort our identity. We often are not aware that we are being robbed until we are at the bottom of the barrel, barely hanging on by a thread. 

For example, in my personal life, I gained my false identity through relationships. I would look to guys to fulfill me, give me value, and tell me who I was. I had a very distorted view of myself. Throughout the course of middle school and high school, I never had a relationship that lasted longer than three months. I was taught or shown that I was only good enough for a few months. I was replaceable. I started to crave the attention I got from boys because it made me feel good about myself and like I had something to offer someone. 

With each new guy, my true identity faded more and more. 

In college, this false identity made it easier and easier to make choices that, deep down, I knew were not healthy. I became promiscuous because I longed to feel wanted and desired. I no longer thought about the long-term because I was consumed by short-term satisfaction that gave me a sense of worth. By giving guys what they wanted, I got what I wanted; value, worth, and fulfillment. 

Then, as I reached the bottom of my barrel, God grabbed hold of me. He reached out to me and rescued me from the path of destruction I was on. When I finally started to learn who God was, that's when I found who I was. As I began learning the truth of God's Word and learning about his character, I no longer craved the attention of guys because I knew the fulfillment I got from them was nothing compared to the fulfillment that Christ gave me. It wasn't an easy road, and it is something I continue to grow in daily, but knowing where my true identity comes from makes it that much easier to know what my true identity is. 

What is our identity? Our identity as daughters of God is just that. We are his daughters. He is our Father and he longs to see us fulfilled by him, and him alone. He wants the best for us, he guides and directs us, he corrects us for our own good and safety. He longs to spend time with us, pouring out his love, mercy, grace, blessing, favor, peace, goodness...the list goes on and on. 

God has created each and every one of us with a specific identity, for a specific purpose. It does not matter what other people say to or about us, where we work, what our skills or talents are, or where we come from. We all have the perfect identity in Christ.