“God said… “I AM” Exodus 3:14a
Being secure in one’s identity can take a lifetime to achieve. I turned a half-century this year and it’s taken until now to know the genuine me. Better late than never! Humour aside, the journey to get here was, at times, atrocious.
This fifty year old has endured a lot. From abuse to rebellion, childbirth to depression, self-destruction to alcoholism, but finally and wonderfully, redemption. It was only in salvation that my hardened exterior was chiseled away, revealing my real self.
In this fifteen year span of rebirth, I have experienced the creator of the universe, God himself, and he has never shown any sign of having an identity crisis. From the beginning of the world in Genesis to the coming end in Revelation, God has always known and made known who he is, having no qualms about it.
Today’s verse, as part of God’s intimate exchange with Moses, points to the Lord’s sovereignty. He is the ultimate, all-encompassing, everything. Nothing in the cosmos happens outside of his knowledge and to know who you are in Christ, like God knows himself, is to have truly arrived. It’s to walk in a divine self-assurance unlike anything else you could possibly experience.
It’s from God’s identity that I derive my own. It’s because of who he is that I possess passion in my morning prayer times and seek to know God more intimately each day through reading his word. His awesome nature, both in love and discipline, is precisely why I am who I am, occupying a sound identity rooted in almighty God.
Throughout our Christian lives, we will encounter times when we believe our identities to be in crisis but that never moves the Lord from his place of majestic reign. He reaches out to us in our turning points and lovingly brings us back in the way only God can, restoring us. May we never allow the world to dictate who we are when we have been firmly sealed in Christ unto eternity.
Heavenly Father, in declaring yourself so confidently to me, you have solidified my godly identity. Just as you spoke the words ‘I AM’ to Moses, I bow in awe as you say the same to me. Thank you for this blessed assurance as your life for me continues to unfold and mature. It’s you whom I praise, in Jesus’s name. Amen.
Allow the short but powerful statement of God, from today’s verse, to saturate yourself and spirit so that you, too, can be firm in your godly identity.
By Melissa Talbot
Used by Permission
Further Reading
• God Is…