Who is This "Me?"

When asked to describe themselves, most people will usually mention race, religion, cultural or family background.

So who am I? This is something I question a lot. And a lot of time, I find myself thinking, I have no idea.

Yet when I run to the Lord, I have no doubt who I am and who I am to be. He says that the things I listed above don't apply anymore. My identity isn't determined by physical heritage, social standing, or race. My identity lies in the fact that I am a child of God, spiritually alive in Christ.
It's crazy. Every person who believes in Jesus is adopted into the family of God! Everyone goes. Completely contradictory to what we would expect? I believe so. A perfect metaphor of this is through a story I just read about a man named Matthew...

To make this story short...
When Matthew was very little he was actually named Michael by his biological mother. He and his two sisters were left in abandonment by her on the steps of an old rundown hotel building. Michael was responsible to find food and to care for his two sisters. Daily he would walk up and down the hallways of this hotel, begging for the food he and his sisters longed to have. His sisters suffered sexual abuse from residents in exchange for food. He never knew who his father was. He had no notion of what family meant at all. He only knew he had a mission to find food or they would all go hungry. After countless days and nights of anxiety and fear for his sisters' health, he finally cried out to the Lord, asking to be carried by His hand of protection...
The next day...
A pastor was contacted by someone stating that three young children were left abandoned at the San Linda Hotel. He immediately ventured there, and took the children under his care, until he could find them a permanent home. Eventually, they were adopted by another family, into a new home.
Michael became Matthew; he received a whole new identity and family, a new name, new relationships, new everything.

Just as Matthew received a new identity in his adopted family, we gain a new identity when we accept Christ...a spiritual identity in Him. We're not left in the shadows, forgotten or unnoticed. We no longer have obligation to listen to lies about our self-worth. We can forget all of that because what God offers is more than anything this world tries to offer us. God won't leave us empty and void. He won't abandon or forget. He offers strength, peace and unconditional love, things that people or objects can never give. Sometimes I find myself questioning the reality of Christ, and if He truly does give peace and strength even when I doubt. And the fact is, He does. His purity, hope and security are automatically at my grasp, I just have to tell Him I desperately need them, and need them from His hands.

I understand that things from the past can overwhelm a person. Circumstances, people, memories...they are real and are really hard to overcome. But in Christ, we are free from every detail from the past, or what is going on right now...or what may unfold in the future. God has told us that these things don't matter anymore. Our identity isn't placed in them any longer, it is placed in Him and His truth. The lies that are fed to us...lies regarding our failures or worth, are just mere lies that are from a source seeking to destroy our identity and our hope.
I think we have learned to live our lives without God. Our identity and how we view ourselves has been programmed into us from our fallen world and our relationships with others. But objects don't determine who we are. People no longer determine who we are. Now, Christ's work on the cross determines our identity.
Through God, chains of hurt and abuse can be broken. Those who struggle with emptiness can have freedom. Hearts that have been cut and bruised can be healed.
But only through Jesus Christ. He is what our identity can be found in.

I want you to know...
I am praying for you. I care about you. It's a possibility we have never met or even never spoken. But I pray for you each day, that you find your identity in Jesus. That you realize your insane worth in Him, and can truly feel His peace and security in your life.

Abiding in His grace,

Ally