Would you say our words and actions reflect who we are? Do you think those actions and words are rooted in our emotions, our hurts, our failures and fears? I believe how we behave reflects our “humanness” – if you will.  In the eyes of God our Father, we are a great deal more than what our words and actions portray.  While we are sinners, we are not defined by our sins.  By the grace and mercy and unimaginable love of God, he washes us clean of our sins and newly defines us as His children.

Throughout our walk of life on this earth, there will be many individuals with whom we will have interactions and relationships.  Some of these people will build us up, while others may tear us down.  Relying on others, even those we dearly love, to define who we are is not what God intended for us.

There is not one person that we are in relationship with that can fully encapsulate the essence of who we are.  If we were to truly reflect and be honest with ourselves, we would likely agree that even the closest person to us does not know the entirely of our thoughts, desires, fears and dreams.  Yet we allow others who haven’t a clue as to our heart, our history, our hurts to define who we are.

We have a desire to be accepted, loved and held in high regard, don’t we?  Do you ever wonder why that is?  Our God placed those desires in us, so that we would find the fulfillment of those desires in Him and Him alone.  Unfortunately. many of us look to fellow imperfect people that surround us to fulfill those voids instead of our Heavenly Father.

Our Creator and Our Father in Heaven is the only one who knows our inner most thoughts, and our heart’s desire.  Only God, our Father can tell us who we are.  He is our Maker and He alone knows all of who we are.  I would ask that you might open your heart and mind and let the words of Ephesians chapter one drench you with the knowledge and truth of who you are in Christ Jesus.  You are…

Chosen, in Him.

Eph 1:4 “For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight.”

God, your Father in Heaven, chose you.  Before the foundations of the world were laid – He chose you.  Could we settle into that for a moment and let it sink into the marrows of our bones – we are chosen.

We are chosen “in Him” – in Christ.  We are individuals chosen to hold a membership in the body of Christ.  Each of us with a distinct purpose within the body to fulfill.  Yet each purpose intertwined, such that together we fulfill God’s larger purpose.

In John 15:16 Jesus reminds us “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you.”

Adopted, in love.

Eph 1:5 “In love he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will”

God adopted us as His children.  While all humans are God’s creation, we enter a new realm when we declare that Jesus is our Savior, we are adopted as children of God.  John 1:12 tells us  “Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.”

God provided a loving pathway into adoption John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”   Through Jesus’ sacrifice, all humans are offered a place in God’s family as His children.

Forgiven

Eph 1:7 “In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace”

God is perfect and we as humans were in perfect relationship with God, until sin entered the world.  We lived distanced from God, until Jesus came to wash us clean of our sins.  Having been washed of our sins, past, present and future, we return into communion with our Heavenly Father and Creator.  We come into right relationship and are given the opportunity to walk fresh, new and clean each moment with Him – what an amazing gift.

 Redeemed

Through Jesus we are redeemed. David captures this in Psalm 103:12 “as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us”

Christ in his death paid the ransom to set us free from the penalty we rightfully deserve because of our sins. A parallel to better understand this is to think of the life of a slave, one could pay the master an agreed upon price to purchase the freedom of the slave.  Jesus paid the price to deliver us from the punishment that we would otherwise be subject to.  Jesus died in place of us.

Marked, in Him

Eph 1:13 And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation.  When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit,”

We are marked with the seal of the Holy Spirit.  I love the visual image this places in my mind.  I think back to the day when letters were sealed with wax and marked with the insignia of a King’s ring.  It makes my think of our King – Jesus, and his mark of the Holy Spirit imprinted on our hearts and in our lives. Might our lives be testimony of the power of the Holy Spirit in and through us.

God’s Possession

 Eph 1:14 “who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory.”

There is beauty in the simplicity of the following three words: We are His.

My sincerest prayer for you is that when someone tries to define you, you will harken back to the truth of God’s word.  I hope that you would look back to Ephesians 1 and remember who God says you are.  Remember you are chosen, in Him.  You are adopted, in love.  You are forgiven and redeemed, through Him.  You are marked in the Holy Spirit.  You are His beloved.  That is who you are.  I pray that His words resound in your mind, and are cemented in your heart, as your Father in Heaven intended for them to be. Amen