I woke up this morning bright and early to make it to Standing In The Gap. That's a local faith-based group that helps supply area needy families like mine with food once a month. They also have 30 minutes of a faith-based message and sing some worship tunes before handing out groceries. While the guy who normally gives the message was out today due to a shoulder surgery, I was delighted with the message that was delivered by a guest speaker (youth pastor for Destiny Life Church).
He talked a lot about how important it is to find our identity in Christ. Many times we look to salvation as something that happens after we clean up our life. But that's not true. God accepts us right where we are and clothes us immediately in righteousness. We are not the things our neighbors think about us. We are not who our pasts reflect us to be. We are adored by a God who gives us everlasting unconditional love. 1 John 5-7 says, God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. (NIV Translation)
Then the guest speaker said something that really hit home for me. He said many times, the Devil will try to use who you are in Christ against you. For example, you can be proud of reading those 3 chapters of your Bible today, but the Devil can come right around and point out someone else who read 20 chapters today. It kind of makes you feel bad sometimes that you didn't read as many. Or maybe you've just thrown in $10 more than usual into the offering plate knowing your financial situation was already tight and you may have to do without some things this week, but believe God is going to bless that money and good will be done with it. Later in the day, you found out someone else at your church just bought an entire well to provide clean water for a very needy country. Suddenly your $10 doesn't seem like much and you question your family's sacrifice for a measly $10.
I think in our lives the Devil often makes us look at our troubles and compare them to others. One day I may be frustrated at my children misbehaving and feel I'm really losing it over here. Some other mother may be out there weeping at the death of her child who fought for our country's freedom overseas. Mine suddenly seems a little more trivial.
But does that mean God doesn't care as much about my problem as this other lady? Does God not praise and bless my $10 as much as the clean water donation?
Of course not! And this is where we really need to focus on who we are in Christ so that these thoughts the Devil will place before us don't consume us. God wants to hear us. He wants to help us. He likes to take care of us and bless us. He loves our good works - big and small. He cares about our troubles - big and small. We each have a purpose unique from any other of God's people.
Ephesians 1:7-12 says, Because of the sacrifice of the Messiah, his blood poured out on the altar of the Cross, we're a free people - free of penalties and punishments chalked up by all our misdeeds. And not just barely free, either. Abundantly free! He thought of everything, provided for everything we could possibly need, letting us in on the plans he took such delight in making. He set it all out before us in Christ, a long-range plan in which everything would be brought together and summed up in him, everything in deepest heaven, everything on planet earth. It's in Christ that we find out who we are and what we are living for. Long before we first heard of Christ and got our hopes up, he had his eye on us, had designs on us for glorious living, part of the overall purpose he is working out in everything and everyone. (Message Bible Translation)
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