Consider identity – what you believe about yourself at the core of your being – how was it formed? I can’t help but believe that the beginnings of what we believe is formed very early in life by significant adults. This includes parents, grandparents, siblings, teachers, neighbors, aunts, uncles, cousins.

As we move into adulthood, the responsibility to re-form a healthy identity lies with the individual. Regardless of what we experienced in the past, we get to write the next part of the story. We get to choose what it looks like, how it proceeds, how it ends. And in this process, I see two paths.

We attempt to conquer the world and from our performance, form an identity. In this way, our identity depends on maintaining a high level of performance.

OR

We form an identity based on what God’s word says, and from this place of security, we successfully conquer the world. Our identity is secure in the foundation of truth, not performance.

Where are you? Does your identity depend upon your continued good performance and contribution to something? Or is your identity firmly fixed in what God says about you?

Tomorrow we will look at an example of both…