Knowing your identity in Christ – 4 Ways to grow

Knowing your identity in Christ is pivotal to shaping your core beliefs and influencing how you renew your mind. Throughout our childhood years, our core beliefs are formed and shaped by our parents, extended family, siblings, peers, teachers, and society at large. We work out what we like and dislike, yet for the most part, we still wander around the world with a big question mark: “Who am I? Am I really good enough? What is my purpose?

So often, we think we know who we are until we find ourselves stripped bare, all the way down to the core. In this place, we find ourselves staring at the mirror uncertain of who we really are, what our purpose is. We may even feel alone or lost.

I found myself lost

This is what happened to me:

I knew some of my character traits and personality quirks, one of which was being actively involved in my church. It gave me a sense of belonging and appealed to my desire to have an impact on the world around me. I knew I was on a mission to prove myself to the people around me. I wanted to be seen and noticed, especially since I felt that I had been hidden in my sister’s shadow my entire life.

It wasn’t until I became a mother that I was forced to face the reality that I didn’t really know who I was or how God saw me. Knowing our identity in Christ is not something that is prerequisite to being raised in a Christian home (which I was); it’s more of a journey. My journey was about to start.

For the past six years, I have in one way or another been stripped of all roles and titles. Some of them I have removed whereas life has removed others. I began to ask myself this question:

If I was on a deserted island with no title of wife, mom, daughter, friend, sister, employee, freelance writer, artist, etc… who am I?

I couldn’t define myself according to what I do. My identity needed to be defined by who I am and who knows that better than God. I needed to know who I was on a spiritual level so that it would overflow and realign the rest of my core beliefs and self-worth with heaven’s perspective.

4 Ways of knowing your identity in Christ

Since God created us and knows our every move and heart’s desire, how can we grow in knowing our identity in Christ? Here are four simple yet effective ways to begin to solidify who you are as a person and not just a functional being:

1 Ask God.

Have you ever looked at a piece of art and wondered what it is? I know I have. Some of the art that I have gazed at has left me wondering what the artist was thinking when they created their piece or what message did they want to send to their audience. The best person to ask about who you are is your creator. God is the best person to guide you in knowing your identity in Christ.

When God fashioned you in your mother’s womb, he already had planned your entire life including your appearance, character, and personality. He created you with a purpose and intent. He took his blueprint of your design and crafted you fearfully and wonderfully (Psalm 139). He is the artist, you are the masterpiece.

Ask God who you are. Listen to what he has to say. From there you can choose to take a chance and believe him or dismiss it as your imagination because it sounds too precious to be true. God will lead you in knowing your identity in Christ because it will bring you into greater freedom, joy, healing, and wholeness.

2 Do a Bible study.

Not long after I got married, the Lord laid on my heart to do a Bible study. Each verse that I read which spoke about who I am in Christ and in God’s eyes were to be highlighted pink. I did this for almost a year knowing that when I needed a reminder, I could easily page through my Bible for those pink highlighted verses. This would help me readjust my thinking to match God’s precious thoughts towards me (Psalm 139:17)

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3 Reflect on your life and journal.

Over the next few days, think about your life until this moment. What did you enjoy? What are you good at? What did people compliment you on throughout your life? What are your strengths and weaknesses? Do you know your spiritual gifts? Analyze what thoughts you hold towards yourself that are not in line with the Bible or what God has told you. Anything different is not from God and needs to be explored and dealt with to bring healing to your identity and heart. Knowing your identity in Christ means sifting through those things that are fallacies about you (held by you and others) in exchange for God’s truth. This self-awareness will play a role in your spiritual gifts which flow out of your identity in Christ.

4 Listen to what people say about you.

I don’t mean give others a louder voice in your life than what they should. Listen to what people say about you when they praise you or talk about you.

• What words are coming out of their mouths?
• What areas are compliments?
• What areas are blind spots?

This will give you insight into who you are as a person from an outsider’s perspective. You can then take this information before God for his perspective. What fits with his view of you and what is to be thrown out?

You can be certain that not everything people say about you is worth listening to. That being said, you can find confirmation and patterns pointing to your identity in Christ. Knowing your identity in Christ is often confirmed by people’s perspective of you because they often see more objectively whereas we see subjectively.

 
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