Who Are You?
 
Who are you?  Do you ever stop and wonder about why you are here and what your life means? 
 
A young man, college student age, nervously fiddles with the edge of the big Bible on his lap.  He sits in our church counseling office and tries to explain that he’s confused.  About life…about his future…about God.  “I just don’t know who I really am,” he finally admits.
 
A middle-aged man suddenly realizes that the course of his life hasn’t followed his dreams.  He’s feeling his age.  He‘s tired of his job.  His kids are growing up and growing distant.  He begins to question everything about his life from his marriage to his faith.  He looks in the mirror and wonders who that person is and what his life is all about. 
 
A busy woman, with a family, a job and lists of commitments that keep her running and worn out often stops in her rare quiet moments and wonders, “Is this who I am?  Is this what I am meant to be doing?”
 
I hear these questions every day, everywhere.  Recently I visited Australia where I was able to participate in a pastor’s conference.  I had a message prepared to share with my fellow pastors, when I began to realize something.  These guys were discouraged!  They talked a lot about their national identity and felt like their years of ministry had been really difficult.  Rather than the Bible study I had planned, God had another message for His church in Australia.  He wanted them to see themselves for who they really are—in Him. 
 
I’ve come to realize that the entire human race suffers from a huge identity crisis.  Most of us don’t realize who were are, and who we are meant to be. 
 
Who are we?  We are God’s creation, made in His image, according to His likeness.  Thousands of years of sin, corruption, sorrow and disease may have broken us down into something barely recognizable to anyone who had known Adam and Eve in their before-the-fall state. 
 
But we are still God’s creation!  Because of His great love for us, He sent His Son, Jesus, to restore us and to make us alive once again through His Spirit.  When we ask Jesus into our lives, He makes us “new creatures.”  When we draw near to Him, Jesus gives us a new identity. We may carry the outward marks of living in this world, but our souls and spirits are once again back in the garden with Him.
 
Who are we? 
 
The Bible says we are “children of God” (John 1:12) and friends of God (John 15:14).  We are servants of the Almighty, and we are heirs to all that He has to give us (Romans 8:17).  The Bible says that through Him we are “renewed in the spirit” of our minds (Ephesians 4:23), that we will never thirst (John 4:14), never perish (John 3:16), and that we can know and experience the width, length, depth and height of the love of Christ (Ephesians 3:18-19).
 
Who are we?  It can be summed up in one word: BELOVED. 
 
Over and over, throughout the Scriptures, God calls His people “beloved.” “Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us!” the apostle John exclaimed, addressing his fellow believers as “beloved” (1 John 3).  John wanted his brothers and sisters in Christ to understand how much God loved them. 
 
King Solomon, in his beautiful piece of poetry called the Song of Solomon, wrote of human love, but the Song is also an allegory of God’s love for us.  “I am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine!” he proclaimed. 
 
To the young man who is confused, to the middle-aged man, to the harried woman, to Christian workers struggling to overcome discouragement, to everyone who has ever struggled with life, I encourage you to remember who you are.  You are God’s beloved. Whether you are a success or feel like a failure, whether you are sick or in good health, whether life is good or times are hard, God never ceases to love you and to work all things for good on your behalf. 
 
My prayer is that as you spend time each day In the Word, you will continue to grow in the knowledge and grace of God’s great love.
 
Pastor Ray Bentley