Mistaken Identity

1 Corinthians 13:11–12 ESV

When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.

Understanding Identity

God created us.

God owns us.

God has authority.

God knows us better than anyone else

Made in God’s Image

Every good quality we have is a reflection of God’s nature in us.

God made us with purpose. He caused us to be born into the families we have at this exact moment in history for a reason.

He made us because he wants us around. He loves to be with us.

God doesn’t make mistakes. So why do so many people seem to struggle?

Mistaken Identity

We have a whole world full of people who don’t know who they are. Everywhere you go, someone is using the phrase “I identify as…”, and we are supposed to not only accept their assumed identity, we are supposed to celebrate it. Anyone who says or does anything that challenges their self-perception is attacked by a whole lot of people.

Even now, some of you may be thinking, “What’s the harm if someone wants to identify as something different?”

We hear about people “living their own truth.” The problem with that is that truth is not subjective. Opinions are subjective, but truth is constant. If we truly believe that there is a God and that he designed and created each of us with purpose, then we cannot believe that gender is simply a matter of personal choice or how a person perceives their self.

Some one may argue, “This is how I feel.” But the Bible tells us that we should not be led by our feelings.

Jeremiah 17:9 MEV

The heart is more deceitful than all things and desperately wicked; who can understand it?

Jesus also makes it clear that we are to deny sinful desires if we are going to follow him. Jesus also said Matthew 7:13

Matthew 7:13 ESV

“Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many.

What do you think that means?

The ones who are telling you that the Bible is old fashioned and no big deal are also the ones who say that you are whatever you imagine yourself to be.

But if you can really talk to people who are desperate to claim some other identity, you find out that their motivation for identifying their self a certain way is that they feel like they are failing in their born identity. I heard a man say that, before he came to Christ, he was convinced he was a trans woman. Then he learned that God loved him as a man, and that God that he was every bit as much a man as any other man has been a man. Because he knew that God loved him as a man, this guy started to love himself as a man. The more he loved himself and felt loved by God, the less he needed other men to affirm his worth. He is no longer attracted to men.

You will live your life based on how you define yourself. If you think you are a no-good piece of nothing who is destined to become a drug addict like everyone else around you, then that is how you will live your life.

If you surround yourself with people who view life a certain way, you will begin to see life that way too. The people around you are more than happy to tell you who they think you are, and if you listen long enough, you will believe what they say.

But God has a better plan for you. He made you. He decided your ethnicity, your gender, and your family. The choices God made about you and your environment means that you have certain advantages, but also certain challenges. We all have our problems. God wants us to grow through those challenges and reach the potential he has placed within each of us. God wants us to learn who we truly are by learning how HE defines each of us.

How God Defines You