This idea of identity and belonging is big in the bible as well. It’s key to the story of the gospel that because of Christ I now belong. I have found my identity in Christ and my belonging in the family of God. We all want identity and belonging, we all long for it and God knows we need it. The last book of the bible talks about this in an interesting way,

Rev. 3:12 The one who is victorious I will make a pillar in the temple of my God. Never again will they leave it. I will write on them the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which is coming down out of heaven from my God; and I will also write on them my new name.

Clearly, when Christ is done and we have been claimed by him he will mark us as his own. All will know who is our Lord, what is our Location and who has given us Life. Ownership, identity, belonging will finally be settled once for all. We will eternally be His.

“Who are you?” someone might ask. You can now answer with clarity from Jesus, “I belong to God, my home is in the new Jerusalem and my relationship is with Jesus himself.” If that doesn’t give you an identity, a belonging then nothing will!

Visit Mike at Finishing Well.

The post Identity first appeared on CHRISTIAN REP.

Intake = Identity

What we take in changes us, molds us, impacts us. We are, whether we believe it or not, changed by the content of our input.

Input = Impact

The fascinating thing about all this is that the bible talks about this in a hundred different ways. Proverbs tells us that if we hang around with angry people we will become angry. It affects us.

I love meeting and talking with people. I love getting to know them and very quickly you know what they have been imbibing. It shows in how they think, what they say. We are molded, changed by what we absorb. Impact is not about changing the world, it’s about changing you. When you know that what you put into your mind, your thoughts, your life changes you, impacts you, influences you, and creates your identity. It makes these words even more important,

So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.

Visit Mike at Finishing Well.

The post Impact first appeared on CHRISTIAN REP.