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Your Identity in Christ will set you free!

In order to be spiritually healthy, you need to realize what
your identity is in Christ. Your identity in Christ is simply
who you become once you receive Christ as your Savior.

Before salvation, a person's identity is largely a product of
their upbringing...whether nice or mean, happy or sad,
positive or negative. Before salvation, many people think of
their identity as what they do for a living, who they are
married to, what kind of family they came from. Some even define
themselves according to what kind of personality they
have...whether outgoing, temperamental, or introverted. Some
people may have even found their identity in what kind of
astrological sign they were born under!

You might be happy with those labels. Unfortunately, those
labels can put us in a box from which we can't escape. No
one is perfect and everyone comes to a point in his or her life
when they realize that something needs to change if they want
their circumstances to change.

That's when many people come to Christ. They realize that
only through the power of God can they change their
circumstances, their thought patterns and their life. The
good news is that once you receive salvation, you become a "new
creature in Christ." What does that mean? Well, you take on the
character of Jesus because He comes to live inside of you.

What is the character of Jesus like? Since Jesus is the Son of
God, and God is love, you can say that, according to 1
Corinthians 13:4-7, Jesus is patient, kind, and humble.
He is not envious, boastful or proud. He is not rude
or self-seeking or easily angered. He keeps no record of
wrongs. He does not delight in evil but rejoices with the
truth. He always protects, always trusts, always hopes,
and always perseveres. And since Jesus came to dwell inside
of you once you received his gift of salvation, you can say that
you are all of those things as well.

You might wonder why, then, do you still get jealous? Why are
you still envious, boastful or proud? Why do you get so angry
sometimes with the people you love and hurt them with your
actions and words? That's because we are not yet fully
perfected. In Hebrews 12:2, Paul says "let us fix our eyes on
Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith, who for the joy
set before Him endured the cross, scorning its shame and sat
down at the right hand of the throne of God." Jesus is our
beginning and our end. We start with Him when we are saved and
He takes us through the changes we need to make. We might still
struggle with the habits of our old self but we need to believe
the truth that we are "new creatures". It may not manifest
instantly in our lives; nevertheless it is truth.

In his book, "Seeing is Believing", by Gregory A. Boyd, he says
"Because we habitually thought and lived as our old selves
before receiving our new identity, God's proclamation of who we
truly are in Christ must overcome our old self identity that we
continue to experience (our sinful lives)...

It is certain that believers ultimately will be conformed to the
image of Christ. (Romans 8:29) The light certainly will overcome
the darkness and the truth will eventually swallow the lie.
Until that time, however, we are in process."

If you are a born-again believer and you struggle with old
character traits that are bringing you down, you need to come to
an understanding of who you are in Christ. Pick up your Bible
and look up all the character traits of Jesus. Declare these
truths about yourself because that is who you are in Christ
Jesus.

Does this mean that you have lost your personality once you
are saved? That we are all cookie-cutter copies of Jesus? Not at
all! Having Jesus as our savior sets us free to be who God
designed us to be! God made each one of us as individuals. "For
you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's
womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful, I know that full well."
Proverbs139:13-14. He has a plan and purpose for each one of us:
"I know the plans I have for you", declares the Lord, "plans to
prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a
future." Jeremiah 29:11 Our life's plan and purpose is different
because of how God created us but we can be certain it all ends
up in the same place; a place where our lives will glorify Him.
Just like Jesus.

About the Author

Eunice Coughlin is the founder of Healthy Living for Moms, which
encourages healthy living habits for moms of all ages and
stages. For more information about emotional eating andother
healthy living topics, check out
www.healthy-living-for-moms.com/emotional_eating.html.

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