Yesterday in my writing classes, I asked my students this question:  If God were standing in the front of the classroom, speaking words about you, what would He say about you?  My students are beginning to pre-think an essay idea about “identity,” and while that seems to be a charged word in today’s society; truthfully, it has continually been a “charged” word when placed properly with God, as it should.

• HERITAGE—Yes, it comprises—our IDENTITY.
• CUSTOMS & CULTURE—Yes, they too say who we are—our IDENTITY
• FAMILY NAME & FAMILY TRADITIONS—Yes, who we call “family” is surely—our IDENTITY.
• FAITH & BELIEFS—Yes, who we profess to believe, totally displays—our IDENTITY.

IDENTITY—WHAT WOULD GOD SAY IS OUR IDENTITY?

That question is really so easy to answer.  Yes, so easy.

God would say—MINE—to those who have accepted His Salvation.

However, to those who have Not accepted Him as Savior, He will look at them:  “And then I will declare [Jesus Christ will declare] to them, “I never knew you;  DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.” (Matthew 7: 23)

Our identity is found in Christ Jesus.  We either know the Father through our relationship with Jesus, or we do not.

Our identity is secure in Christ Jesus.  We either are held by the Father through His forgiveness of our sins, or we are not.

Our identity is found in Christ Jesus.  We either are a child of God, or we are not.

Our identity is found in Christ Jesus.  We either belong to the family of God, or we do not.

There is no grey, in the middle, wavering place.  IN—or—not IN.  That’s it.  We IDENTIFY with God through the cross of Calvary, through the shed blood of Jesus—or we do not.

We cannot stand in the middle because there is no middle ground.

What would God say is our Identity?

Let’s ponder another question that will help put to rest this indecision.  If today were found to be our final day, if today we did not place our head back upon our pillow tonight but instead our bodies were placed in the morgue, where would our soul immediately reside?

With God or apart from God?

With God or separated from God?

With God or cast in utter darkness?

With God or cast into the pit of Hell?

With God or forevermore, for eternity, away—from God?

If God were to stand and speak about us today, if God were to call our names aloud, if God were to say something about our eternal future, would He speak words like these

“Good morning all, this girl, Nancy, this is what I know about her.  She is My child.  At age fifteen, she accepted me into her heart, and although she is not perfect, and even when she messes up, she can ask for My forgiveness, and it is hers to receive.  I know her and she knows Me.  We talk daily.  She strives to listen to Me.  She also strives to walk daily with Me.  We have a Father-child relationship, and one day, she will come home to heaven to reside forever with Me.”

WHAT WOULD GOD SAY ABOUT OUR IDENTITY?

Truly, what God says is ALL that matters—Our Only Identifier That Truly Matters!

The prophet Isaiah recorded the journey of the redeemed, the path of God’s children, and the way we can totally know WHO holds our present identity as well as our future identity.  SEE WITH ME (these words found within God’s Holy Word).

“Take courage, fear not.

Behold, your God will come with vengeance;

The recompense of God will come,

But He will save you.”

Then the eyes of the blind will be opened

And the ears of the deaf will be unstopped.

Then the lame will leap like a deer,

And the tongue of the mute will shout for joy.

For waters will break forth in the wilderness

And streams in the Arabah.

The scorched land will become a pool

And the thirsty ground springs of water;

In the haunt of jackals, its resting place,

Grass becomes reeds and rushes.

A highway will be there, a roadway,

And it will be called the Highway of Holiness.

The unclean will not travel on it,

But it will be for him who walks that way

[in the Only Way of truth and life, of Jesus Christ],

And fools will not wander on it.

No lion will be there,

Nor will any vicious beast go up on it;

These will not be found there.

But the redeemed will walk there,

And the ransomed of the LORD will return

And come with joyful shouting to Zion,

With everlasting joy upon their heads.

They will find gladness and joy,

And sorrow and sighing will flee away.”

(Isaiah 35: 4-10)